Odd One Out
by Tracy22
Summary: Crossover with Dirty Dancing The Outsiders gang starts working at Kellerman's. People will definitely get their hands dirty... No slash.
1. Let the Party Start

Darry's POV

I loaded scoop after scoop of ice into the cooler. Dance lessons ended at 5 and being the first one off of work had it's downfalls. I was always stuck setting up for the parties every night at the Hangout. I felt someone clap me on the back and turned around to find my brother, Soda, standing behind me with a wide grin on his face. He was still wearing the signature Kellerman's waiter uniform.

"What's up, bro?" he asked.

"Just setting up as usual. Why don't you find something to do to help me out." I motioned to the unprepared room we were standing in.

"Just tell me what to do, boss."

"When Johnny and Billy get here from bell hopping, get them to help you with bringing in all the drinks." I said, pointing to the door and then to all the coolers along the wall.

"They should be here soon, check-in ended at 4 for the day." Soda said.

"Got it. If you see anyone else, send them my way." I walked off, finding more set up to do.

I found a closet with tables and chairs in it. They weren't going to have much use, but it was probably good to have. I heard more people walking in and Soda saying, "he's in the back."

I was greeted by Two-Bit, Steve, and Robbie. They took it upon themselves to move the tables and chairs into the main room. They lined them up around the sides so there would be plenty of room in the middle.

"Thanks, guys!" I yelled at them. They grunted in return. Johnny and Billy walked in. There wasn't any more to do so they wandered around, talking with the other guys.

"Has anyone seen Pony?" I asked to the room of guys. They all shook their heads.

"He should be here anytime. He's always the last to show." Two-Bit told me.

Steve rubbed his hands together and looked out the window, waiting for all the other staff members to show up. "Let the games begin!"

We waited a few more minutes and more people started to arrive. First was Sodapop's girlfriend, and my dance partner, Penny. She was looking better now, even after what had happened. At least that made one of us... Next we had Steve's girl Tamia along with Two-Bit's Lisa. Everyone was mingling and the music was getting started. Pony walked in late as usual and waved to me. Couples were starting to pair off and move to the dance floor.

I heard the door open and close once more, and heard the familiar voice yelling about the music. "Sorry I'm late guys, you know work! The party can start now!"

I walked over to where he was standing. "How are you late, Dally? What do you even do here?"

"To tell you the truth, I have no idea what my job is." He laughed and slapped my shoulder.

Dorry's POV

I turned onto the highway and gunned it. I had a red 1954 Chevrolet Bel-Air: however, it's now 1963 so it wasn't the tuffest car on the block, but I payed for it myself and I loved the thing to death. I cherished anything I got on my own, so basically just my car and my clothes. My parents were never very good in the money department seeing that my mom ran out on us when I was six and my dad can't hold a steady job due to being in the clink half the time.

That's only my past though, I just turned eighteen and I'm starting my life over. I am Dorothy Sue Henderson and I am going to prove to my father that I can make a life for myself, no matter how much he thinks I'll fail.

"Dorry, what are you thinkin' 'bout? You've never looked so serious in you're life!" My best friend Anna Schmidt shouted at me, breaking me out of my trance.

"Sorry, I'm just so glad to finally be getting out of this town. I can't even believe it!"

"I know! It's happening, it's really happening..." She trailed off with a smile on her face.

"Will you two stop yappin' and turn the radio up? I love this song!" Julie, Anna's little sister, yelled at us from the back seat. We both laughed and I cranked up the dial on the the radio and began to sing along to "Light My Fire" by The Doors.

We were all going to this place called Kellerman's. It's this big resort type thing where all the rich folks go to vacation in the summer. Something bad happened to the dance instructor there and they recruited me to replace her if need be. Anna had gotten a job there as a new lifeguard. At first they wouldn't allow is to bring her little sister along if she didn't work there, but after we explained, they were okay with it. Anna's parents died in a fire last year. They didn't have any other relatives so they were supposed to be separated and put into girls' homes. When they went, Anna fought so passionately that the allowed her to become Julie's legal guardian even though she was only sixteen. So for the past year they've been taking care of each other with weekly check ups from the court. Anna got sick of it, though. She knew she could do just fine on her own. So when she turned seventeen she just up and left. Now we're doing this, all on our own.

It was only about an hour drive up to Kellerman's, but it felt like a life time. We were finally there. When we pulled up to the front and identified ourselves, we were immediately told to drive around back to the staff quarters. I parked the car and hopped out.

"Hey! Hey you!" I called out to a girl walking past.

"Yeah?" She said, coming over.

"Umm, we're supposed to start working here this summer, where are we supposed to go?"

"Oh, you're new, okay. All the rooms are down there, they'll have your name next to the door. There unlocked now, you just have to check-in with Kellerman to get your key. Hey, all the staff are havin' a party up at the Hangout tonight, you should stop by."

"Where?"

"Just go up those steps on the path over there," She pointed "And it's the back shack at the top."

"Cool, we will, thanks for all the help." I told her.

"No problem." She waved at me and then headed towards the path she had just indicated.

We got all of our stuff from the trunk and found our rooms. I had my own, but Anna and Julie we're right next to me. I unpacked, then went to tell them about the party. "Yeah we can go! Come on!" Anna said excitedly.

"Hey Ju-Ju Bee, I'll race ya!" I challenged Julie, before racing ahead of her. I heard her giggle and come up behind me. Soon the three of us had made our way up the path, out of breath from a bad combination of running and laughing at the same time. We stopped outside the door and looked at each other before going in. This is it.

It was dark and smoke-filled on the inside, and there was loud music coming from somewhere. I saw Anna looking around, and her eyes locked on a dark-haired boy sitting in the corner. He noticed here right away, too, and he looked her up and down. He let out a low whistle before he said, "Correction. Now the party can start."


	2. Hey Hottie

**A/N: Thanks for following/favoriting/reviewing.**

**to the anonymous reviewer: The only greaser that's on the wait-staff is Soda, and he's the best looking of the bunch, so it makes sense. Also, just pretend Penny is young enough to be with Soda. And then, Johnny Castle and Darry Curtis are the _same person_. (We also have like the next 8 chapters written so we can't change anything now), but thanks for reviewing!**

Dally's POV

I looked the girl up and down again, she was an average height with long, straight brown hair, and just a few freckles. She seemed normal at first, but the thing that really got me were her eyes, they were the most enticing bright blue eyes I had ever seen. I sauntered up and smirked at her.

"How you doin'?" I asked, raising my eyebrows. Apparently it was her turn to look me up and down, and when she met my eyes again she didn't look too happy. She scoffed and turned to her friend, "Please, is that any way to pick up a girl? Come on Dorry, let's find someone else to talk to."

I rolled my eyes and pretended not to care as they walked away, but I could still here them talking even with the music so loud.

"He was so handsome, what's wrong with you?!"

"How you doin'? Ain't that just the cheesiest thing you've ever heard? Like he could get me with that."

I just stood there straining to hear her talk, but they had gotten too far away and were out of earshot. There was just something about this girl the got me like none other, I had to know more about her. I walk around trying to find one of they gang that might know something about her, I'd never seen her before, but someone must have, right?

"Hey Soda?"

"Yeah Dally, you havin' a good time yet?" Soda shouted over the music, while slapping me hard on the back.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Listen, I have to ask you about this girl." I said, trying to sound casual. Dallas Winston did not have problems getting girls, the only thing he had a problem with was the law. I described her to Soda, praying he would have any piece of information.

"Oh yeah! I know her, I was talking to her just before you came up. Her name's Anna Schmidt, came here with her little sister Julie and her friend Dorry Henderson, she's the new lifeguard." he suddenly raised his eyebrows at me "You got the hots for her, don't ya?" he laughed and slapped my back again.

"I do not, you just quiet down about, alright?" I told him sternly. Normally I would have beat the daylights out of him right there, but now I needed something from him.

"Come on, just tell me if you know anything else about her, okay?" I asked, trying to keep my temper.

"Sure, okay," Soda sputtered, still trying to suppress chuckles "She's seventeen years old, she just came up today. See, her parents died last year in this big fire that started at their house, so she's had to take care of her sister. She got so tired of the government checking up on them though that hauled ass and moved up here for the job."

"You got all that already?" I asked, bewildered. She blows me off in the first two seconds, but tells her entire life story to Soda in two minutes?

"What can I say? I'm a people person!" Soda grinned. I punched him in the shoulder but that just made him grin even bigger.

After talking to Soda I wanted try it with Anna again but I couldn't find her in the crowd of people dancing. I saw Darry over by the coolers and decided to get a beer and see if he knew anything else about the new girl. I walked over and grabbed a bottle out of the cooler then popped the top of it with my teeth.

"Hey, you see that new girl around here?" I asked Darry, again taking on the most I-could-care-less attitude I could muster.

"You mean her?" Darry said.

"Who?" I asked looking at him, he was staring out at the dance floor, his eyes open wide and practically drooling. I followed his eyes to see what he was looking at and caught it immediately. There was a girl dancing in the middle of the floor all by herself, it was that girl Anna was with, Dorry. With the way people dance up here it should have seemed completely out of place, but it didn't, she looked natural, like she was just havin' a lot of fun. She was maybe a little taller than Anna and had shaggy light brown hair cut short like a boys. She was dancing with her eyes closed, but when she opened them I could tell they were grey, even from here. I could also tell whey Darry was so into her, but first things first, I had a girl to get too.

"So, about this-" I was about to continue but he wasn't even looking at me and it was obvious he wasn't listening.

"I'm gonna go ask her to dance." Darry said, suddenly standing up. He walked over and when she saw, she threw off her jeans jacket and smiled at him, motioning for him to come closer. He grabbed her hand and pulled her in close. I smiled in spite of myself, at least somebody might be getting' laid tonight. I turned around to crack open another beer, and there she was. I knew this would probably be my only chance to get with ever again, so I tried to think of something clever to say, but all that came out was "Hey hottie."

Anna's POV

Hey hottie?

"Is that all you've got?" I stifled a laugh. He looked at me, confused.

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean, is that I've noticed you asking around about me and after all that, all you could come up with is 'Hey hottie'?"

He shrugged "Yeah, I guess so..." he stared into space. "Do you wanna get out of here?" he asked, and his eyes snapped back to mine.

It was getting really hot and humid in this place, so fresh air would do me good.

"Yeah, sure." I said. He smiled and took my hand, leading me out of the shack.

We walked down towards the staff cabins and he pointed out where all his friend's rooms were. He stopped about four cabins down from mind.

"This is my place." he said.

"Looks nice." I complimented. I lowered my voice and put my hand on his chest, "Can I see inside?" He looked shocked at what I was suggesting. For such a bad boy exterior, it sure seemed like he didn't do this a lot.

"Uhh, yeah." He lead me up the three short steps and unlocked the door. He ushered me in and I took in my surroundings. He didn't have much, only his clothes and few picture of him with some of the other guys. I turned around to face him and he pressed his lips against mine. I reached up and snaked my arms around his neck and in return he grabbed my hips and moved me to the bed. Our lips only broke apart long enough for me to get my head to the pillows and then we were moving together again. I took the first move at undressing as I pulled at the hem of his Kellerman's shirt. He whipped it over his head and his hands went under my back to unzip my dress. He slid it off my body along with his pants all without breaking our kiss. Ass the night progressed, my memory faded and I woke up with a sheet wrapped around my body. I turned over and Dally wasn't there but there was a piece of paper on the nightstand

_Sorry, had to work. You probably have to too, but I didn't want to wake you. See ya around, Dally._

I looked at the clock on the wall, 8:43, I had to report to Mr. Kellerman at 9 for my first day. Great, I guess I won't be making a good first impression on anyone.

I pulled my hair into a high pony and looked around the room for my clothes. I found my bra and dress thrown around, but there was no sign of my underwear. I shrugged. Guess I'm going commando... I put on what I had and used some of Dally's toothpaste on my finger.

I ran up the path to the main clubhouse and passed Dorry on the way. She gave me a sly wink and let me keep running, I made it into Mr. Kellerman's office as the clock struck 9.

"Hi Mr. Kellerman, I'm Anna Schmidt, the new lifeguard."

"Ah, hello Miss Schmidt. I hope you've been finding your way around okay. You'll find everything you need down in the pool house. Lunch is at 1, and the pool closes at 4, have a good day."

I gave him my thanks and started walking towards the pool I saw a familiar dark head go by, which was odd because I only got her last night. It was Dally. I jogged to catch up with him.

"Hey Dally!" I exclaimed.

"Uh, hey," he replied, looking elsewhere.

"Where are you off to?" I asked.

"Over there." he pointed in vague direction. "I'll see ya around Anna." he mumbled and walked away from me.

"Huh," I said, "what was that all about?"


	3. Be Cool

**A/N: Hey, guys. Thanks again for following/favoriting/reviewing. Tell all your friends! **

**It should be pointed out that in this story, every time Johnny is referenced, it's Johnny Cade-not Castle. **

**And to the anonymous reviewer: No, there is no Johnny Castle in this story. It is basically just all the characters of The Outsiders, but at Kellerman's, with a few DD characters thrown in. Please understand that not every person on the wait-staff has to be going to med school. (And I mean, who wouldn't trust the beautiful face of Rob Lowe). Thanks again for reviewing! **

Julie's POV  
I might have to get a job here if things keep up like this. I spent the first night here completely alone and today's even worse. I'm constantly surrounded by people but either they're guests who don't want to talk to me, or they're working so they can't. Mr. Kellerman even told me that I'm not allowed to use the pool for a while so my sister can get her bearings, he doesn't want her getting distracted. I had met a few people last night but it was too loud to talk much and I was too shy to dance with people that I barely knew. So yeah, walking around by yourself does getting boring pretty fast. I decided to go back to the staff quarters, maybe there was someone on their break that I could talk to.  
The whole place seemed pretty desolate at first, but I thought I heard faint voices coming from somewhere so I kept looking around. The voices suddenly started to get louder and I could make out what they were saying.  
"...what? Are you sure?"  
"Pretty damn sure. It happened right after, who else would it be?"  
"You sure got yourself in a rough spot this time. What's the plan?"  
"I'm gonna keep my mouth shut, and you're gonna do the same."  
"What if she tells?"  
"Nah, girls never tell, she'll be too scared."  
"Fine, I'll keep my mouth shut. But this was too far man, even for you."  
"Shut up."  
"Come on, Penny? That's sick man."  
I finally peeked around a corner, going towards where I thought the voices were coming from. I vaguely recognized them, one of them was Dally, and the other was... what was his name? Robbie I think. Whatever they were talking about sounded serious and I didn't want to intrude, but this was the most exciting thing to happen all day so I kept listening, just for minute.  
"I didn't do nothin', she was askin' for it." Robbie said, starting to get angry. That's when I split, if things here were anything like home, I knew that when someone got angry a fight was bound to follow. I tiptoed backward until I knew they wouldn't hear me and then walked back to my room.  
I sat down on my bed and began to think. What had they been talking about? Then I remembered something, just barely. They had said something about a Penny, wasn't that the girl that Dorry might be replacing? Something had happened to her, something bad... and that Robbie kid had done it to her, that's what it sounded like at least. I knew Dorry had said something about not being able to find whoever was responsible for getting Penny in trouble, had I just figured it out? I still had no idea what he had done though, I didn't to find out fast so I could tell Mr. Kellerman, what if Robbie did it again?  
I was running around wildly trying to remember where the dance studio was, if anyone knew it was Dorry. I finally saw it and ran up the steps and barged through the door.  
"Well who's this?" an elderly man said, pointing to me.  
"Oh I'm so sorry, this is umm Julie. What are you doing her Jules?" Dorry asked me, not looking very happy.  
"You're not supposed to be in here right now young lady, this is a private lesson." a blonde girl told me, she was sitting in the corner of room. I guessed this was Penny, I recognized her sitting down because that's what she had been doing most of the time at the party last night. She didn't look too good.  
"I'm so sorry Penny, she must have a really good reason to be here if she's interrupting me on my first day of work." Dorry apologized to Penny then gave me a look that clearly said 'I'm going to kill you if you don't scram'  
I apologized profusely to Penny but said I just had to ask Dorry one little question and then I'd be gone. It felt weird asking a question about someone who was in the room, so I went up to Dorry and whispered what I had heard in her ear. Her eyes grew wide and she grabbed me by the elbow and pulled me outside.  
"Are you sure? This is serious stuff Julie."  
"Yes, I'm sure, what happened to her?!" I asked, a little impatient.  
"...She, she got raped kid. She got a little tipsy one night and she thought she just passed out, but she couldn't remember anything the next day. After that she started throwin' up a lot and had these crazy mood swings... she found out she got knocked up. Nobody had any idea who did it, but it sounds like you found our culprit. You know if you don't tell Mr. Kellerman I will. Like I said, this is pretty serious stuff kid." Dorry explained to me. I was stunned to say the least.  
"Umm, yeah, I can handle it. I just wanted to know what happened to her so I didn't go around accusin' someone of nothin'."  
"Okay, you go straight to his office, and tell him exactly what you told me alright?" Dorry directed me, I nodded in consent.  
"Okay, good. You're a good kid Ju-Ju-Bee." Dorry said smiling and ruffling my hair up. "But if you ever do this again I'll kill ya, got it? Now go!" She yelled at me, then gave me a shove away from the door. I started running again but this time for the main clubhouse.

"I'm very glad you told me this Julie. I refuse to tolerate actions like this. People love Penny here and what he did her was a terrible, terrible thing. Maybe you can be some help to us around here, thank you." Mr. Kellerman said, then sat down and picked up his phone. I took that as my cue to leave and backed out of his office. I let out a small yelp after I ran into someone behind me. I turned around to see a boy in a white short sleeve button up shirt and black pants. He had dark skin, dark hair, dark eyes, and was just barely taller than I was.  
"I'm so sorry miss." He mumbled, looking down. However, when he looked up, he seemed... puzzled. "Wait, weren't you at the party last night, I remember seeing you there. It's, it's Julie right? You came with the two other new girls."  
"Umm, yeah I was. That's me."  
"Why were you in Mr. Kellerman's office then? You don't work here..."  
"Oh..." I trailed off, not sure how to reply. I didn't want to get a reputation for being shady or secretive around here, so I figured I had to tell him. People were going to find out eventually right? I explained everything from what I heard in the staff quarters up until I bumped into him.  
"Robbie? Huh..." He said looking shocked.  
"Yup..." I agreed, not knowing what else to say. He said goodbye and began to walk off, but suddenly I got an idea.  
"Wait!" I yelled, he turned around and I continued "What's your name?"  
"Uhh, Johnny, it's Johnny." He said sheepishly, then turned around and kept walking. It wasn't the usual way to make friends, but at least I kind of knew someone around here now.

Johnny's POV

I was on my break when I ran into Julie outside Kellerman's office. She told me all about what happened with Penny. We finally knew. I had a sneakin' suspicion that it was Robbie, he always gave me the creeps. All the guys were pretty tight with him, though. I wonder how they would take the news, or I should even be the one to tell them. I walked down to my cabin and heard yelling coming from Robbie's. Kellerman must have called him up and told him to leave. I caught a glimpse through the window and saw him smashing things into a suitcase. What he did is one of those intolerable things that gets ya fired in an instant. He probably isn't even allowed to tell everyone that he's leaving. I was the only one that knew about this, except for Julie of course. Maybe even one of the other new girls. I was going have to tell the guys. Soda's going to be pissed. Dally will be too; they were best friends.

I walked around for the rest of my half hour break from unpacking the guests cars and carryin' their crap to their rooms, and thought about how and when I was going to tell them. I'll tell 'em tonight, since the guys and I were always the first ones there, I'll be able to tell them without the entire staff finding out.

I was heading back to the main entrance before my break ran out, and I ran into Julie again.

"Hey, Johnny!" She waved.

We walked towards each other, "Hey, Julie. How's it goin'?"

"I've been better. This place is pretty boring when you don't know anyone!" She gave me a sad smile.

"You know me!" I defended.

"True, but I can't talk to you while you're working! I can't talk to my sister or Dorry while they're working either, and I don't know anyone else. Hence, this place is boring."

I felt sorry for the kid. She didn't have anyone to talk to around here. "I've got an idea. Come to the party tonight. You can meet a ton of people!"

"Those are only supposed to be for the staff..." She seemed unsure.

"Well, show up tonight anyway! If anyone questions it, just tell them you're with me." I encouraged.

"Ok. If you're sure." I nodded. "I'll see ya then!" She waved again and went towards the cabins.

She seemed like a cool person. She seemed kind of shy, too. I think we we're going to get along just fine. I felt more confident when I was around her, like I knew what I was doing and could actually help her out around here. I smiled to myself and kept walking back to the front of the main house.

I was thinking about our conversation and stopped dead in my tracks. Did I unintentionally ask her out on a date? I told her to tell people that she was with me. Did that count as a date? I started to sweat. I had never been on a date before, or asked a girl out. I had no idea what to do. No, this is just us hanging out. I tried calming myself down, but to no avail. Now I had two things to be nervous about tonight. Telling the guys and this sort of maybe date. I decided I would test out what I was going to say on Billy first.

He heard the gravel crunching under my feet as I walked over to him. He looked up, "Hey, man."

"Hey, Billy." I gulped and pulled at my collar. "Did you hear Robbie got fired?"

Billy looked up, surprised. "In the middle of the season? He musta done something really screwed up."

"He's the one that knocked up Pen." I mumbled.

His head flew up, "What?!"

I nodded, "One of the new girls, Julie, heard him talking about it with someone and went to Kellerman."

"How could he be so stupid? When Soda hears about this..." He trailed off thinking about what Soda would do to Robbie when he found out.

"Robbie's probably already gone. I saw him packing up his stuff a half hour ago."

Billy kicked up some gravel with his shoe, "What a dink!" I nodded in agreement as a new car pulled up for us to unload.

At 4 o'clock sharp Billy and I made our way to the Hangout. I told him I was nervous about telling everyone and he said he'd have my back. We walked through the door and more people were there than usual, the only one of the gang that wasn't there was Dal, and I'm pretty sure he already knew.

"Guys! Johnny's got somethin' to tell ya'll!" Billy shouted to everyone.

They gathered around me, and Soda spoke up, "What is it John?"

"Well, uhm, earlier, I uhm heard that uh Robbie got fired." I flinched.

"Why'd he get fired? Kellerman never fires anyone this late in the season." Darry said.

"Uh." I glanced at Soda. "He-he... He was the one that raped Penny." I spat out.

Everyone turned to Soda. He was clenching his fists and the vein in his forehead was popping out. "How did you find this out, Johnny?" He said as calmly as he could.

"One of the new girls heard him talking about it, and went to Kellerman." I repeated my story. Soda took a step for the door. "He's already gone. Kellerman made him leave immediately." Soda kicked a chair. "Sorry, Soda."

"Don't be sorry, man. Thanks for tellin' us."

I nodded, glad to have to over with. Billy slapped me on the back and went to turn the music on. Other people were starting to show now, and no one said another word about what I told them.

I walked around for a few minutes, talking to a couple friends. I grabbed a beer from the cooler. I was only 16, but no one around here cared who was drinking. I slammed the cooler lid down and I saw her. Julie came with her sister and were talking to Steve's girlfriend. They were laughing at something they said. I'd mentioned her earlier to Billy, and he said to just be cool. Not to let anything get to me. I straightened my shirt and walked over to where she was. I tapped on her shoulder, and when she turned around I said, "Wanna dance?" She turned her head and looked at her sister. Anna just smiled and shoved her gently. Just be cool, Johnny. Be cool. I lead her out to the dance floor.


	4. It's Okay

**A/N: And we're back again for yet another update this week. This is not going to be a daily thing. We actually have this story in the crossovers section, but we wanted it to get more attention so we put it in the straight Outsiders section. We're just trying to catch up with what we have posted there so we can update them both at the same time. **

**Thanks for following/favoriting/reviewing. We really appreciate it. Tell your friends!**

Darry's POV

Boy, was this girl relentless. She's always trying to start up a conversation with me while we're dancing. It's not that I don't think Dorry's a great gal or anything, I just don't feel right getting close to anyone that isn't... her.

On my off time I literally have to _run _from this girl. She has me jumping fences and skidding my tires tryin' to get away from her. Every once in a while, she'll catch me looking back at her while I was running away, and she'll give me this frustrated and exhausted look. I feel really bad for doing it to her, but I just haven't been myself lately. The guys are always asking why they haven't seen me around lately, and I can't tell them the real reason because they'll think I'm goin' soft, so I just give 'em a sly wink and walk away. Sodapop can see through my hastily put up barriers. He knows why I'm really hurting, but he never says anything about it. He just gives me this look of sympathy and I know what he means.

I'm pretty nervous about going into work this morning. Dorry has to help me run a couples dance lesson today, since Penny isn't available. The old farts don't know a thing about dancing, so odds are is that we'll be there a while.

I sit up in my double bed and check the time, 8:45. Only a half hour until the longest day of my life. I slip out from under my covers and put on my normal dance clothes. I hurried out the door, and went up to the main clubhouse. Soda usually snuck Pony and I breakfast before the dining room got too busy. The back door was cracked open when I got there, and I caught a glimpse of coppery-brown hair as I entered.

"Good morning." Dorry saw me and smiled.

"G'morning." I mumbled back at her. I snatched the paper plate waiting for me on the counter and retreated back out. "See ya in 15 minutes." I said at normal volume as I walked away from her.

I heard her sigh loudly.

14 minutes later, I was standing in the loft where we held dance classed and was tapping my foot impatiently. The Shumachers looked at me uncomfortably as I stared down the door, daring her to come in. At 9:16, the door creaked open. I stopped tapping my foot and turned to look at myself in the wall length mirror. "You're late." I declared.

"By 30 seconds." She retorted.

"That 30 seconds could have been very valuable time to the Shumachers." I gestured to our students for the day.

"I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Is it okay that I was a teensy bit late?" She batted her eyelashes at the elderly couple.

"Sure, dearie. We can't get anywhere fast, so why should you?" The women said, and her husband laughed.

She smiled sweetly at them and rolled her eyes towards me.

I shook my head, "Let's get started!"

–

After a couple of hours of teaching the ancient couple a few simple dance moves, they decided they'd had enough. I sighed in relief and accepted their generous tip.

"Now you two had better start getting along!" Sylvia scolded.

"I'll work on him." Dorry whispered ever so subtly to her.

I watched the old couple walk down the mulch path from the window, and as soon as they were out of sight I threw a couple of the bills at Dorry and bolted out the door.

"Wait, I need to talk to you!" She shouted after me, but I kept running.

I heard the door slam behind me and footsteps coming after me. I turned around a corner and jumped into the nearest bush. I adjusted myself so I was sitting up and I jumped when I noticed a body next to me.

"Hey," I said coolly, "What are you doin' in here?"

He scratched his neck nervously. "Hiding from Anna." I swear I could almost see him blush. "What about you."

"Hiding from Dorry," I admitted.

"Women." He simply said.

I nodded, "Why are you hiding from Anna. What could you have done to her in the two days that they've been here that's made her hate you already?"

He chuckled, "She doesn't hate me! We did it, man." I stared at him wide-eyed. He nodded at my amazement. "First night they were here, and now I don't know what to do with her."

"Such a predicament!" I said sarcastically. "Was she good?"

He winked at me, "You know it."

I laughed and felt something hard hit my head. "Ouch! What was that?!" I yelled.

I heard a voice outside of my super-secret hiding place. "If you think that bush has a cone of silence around it, you're wrong."

Dally laughed at my misfortune. "Good luck," he whispered as I crawled out of the foliage.

"What exactly were you doing in there?" Dorry asked curiously.

"I- I was just checking the... water levels of the bush. Seein' if we needed to water it." I heard the leaves rustling and Dally's chuckle retreating.

Dorry's POV

"What?" I asked him flatly.

"I uhh...uhh..." Darry stuttered, trying to avoid my eyes.

"Listen, I don't need this alright? If you don't want to talk to me you don't have to go pulling stupid stuff like this. Anyway, I think I get what you were hinting at, thanks." I explained to him before turning away.

"Dorry!" He called after me. I just kept walking, if he cared he wouldn't have gone to such great lengths to avoid me, I was sick of dealing with shit like this anyway. I tried to walk faster when I heard his feet pounding behind me. He caught up to me quickly, grabbed my arm and whirled me around.

"Come on, just let me... Can we just talk? Please?" Darry asked, his eyes pleading. I gave him a blank stare and crossed my arms. It would take a lot of talking to explain this one. I figured he would keep asking me, but he just stared right back. We simply stared at each other, we stood there, looking at each other. It was getting increasingly harder for me to look intimidating to a guy who was over six feet tall, with muscles bulging through his t-shirt, and those eyes... Damn, I lost my concentration and finally unlocked my eyes from his.

"Fine, we can talk." I shamefully caved. I saw a small glint of satisfaction cross his face from winning before he turned serious again.

"Thanks, let's go up to my room." Darry suggested. I nodded and let him lead the way.

We came up to his room which was secluded from the normal staff quarters and he opened the door for me. I walked in and found a spot to sit on an old rocking chair while he sat down next to me on his bed. He signed deeply and I suddenly realized that this whole thing might be bigger than I anticipated.

"Just before you got here there was this other girl, Baby. She, she changed the way I thought about things, I had never met anyone like her before... We started seein' each other, but her dad was a doctor and ended up dealing with the whole Penny mess. He thought I had gotten her in trouble and he made his whole family leave early. 'Cept for Lisa anyway." Darry trailed off. I thought he might have more to say, but I couldn't contain my questions.

"How did Lisa stay?" I blurted out, breaking him out of his reverie. I nearly jumped out of my skin when he began to laugh.

"She was goin' with Two-Bit at the same time Baby and I were together. When she found out she was leaving she told him that night. They both got drunk and ran off to a chapel about an hour west of here and eloped. After that she refused to go with her parents because she couldn't leave her husband. Boy, if Daddy was mad before..." He said, still chuckling to himself. I hated to get him talking about... her again, but another question sprung out of my mouth.

"Why didn't you try to work it out with Baby?" His face slowly fell as I waited for an answer.

"We thought about it, but decided it would just be too hard for the both of us. This is the stupid part, I know I'm not with Baby anymore, but the night you showed up was the first night I stopped thinking about her. Something about the way you were moving was just... There's just something about you." He glanced up momentarily to look at me, then back down to his hands. "So, I know I'm not with her anymore, but I felt guilty after dancin' with you. Like I was cheatin' or something. I just kept beating myself up for it, ya know?" Darry finished,then again looked up to me. "You gotta think I'm crazy right?"

"No, no, not _completely _anyway," I said, smiling at him. "You guys ended it for a reason. Eventually both of you will move on, you don't hafta feel bad about it. We'll just be buds, like you and you're boys, alright?"

"That's the problem!" Darry suddenly sprung up and began pacing around his room and then stopped just as suddenly. "I don't want to be your 'buddy', Ponyboy is my buddy! I want you." He told me heatedly, then thudded down on the bed once more. The way his voice had sounded when he said _I want you_ made me shiver unexpectedly. Honestly, it was hard for me to not just jump on him right then and there.

"Then I guess," I began cautiously, "We'll just have to take it slow," I gently put my hand on his knee and he immediately tensed up. I recoiled my hand just as fast, even with everything he had just told me maybe I had crossed a line too soon.

"Very slow," I emphasized.

"No, no. It's... okay." Darry said, taking my hand in his, a faint smile playing on his lips.


	5. I Don't Know

**A/N: Thanks for following/favoriting/reviewing. Keep up the good work! **

Anna's POV

Dorry busted through my door, "I have the most confusing news!" She shouted, smiling widely.

I reciprocated her smile, "What happened?"

"So, Darry and I are kind of together!"

"Oh, my God! But I thought he hated you!" I screamed.

"I thought he did, too. But stuff happened, and secrets were told. Long story short, we're taking it _very_ slow."

I clapped, "Congrats! At least one of us has a man now!"

"Still nothing from that guy you bonked?" She frowned.

"That guy I bonked? His name is Dallas! And no... Still nothing. Not even a glance." I shrugged, "But whatever! We have to celebrate tonight!" I jumped up and went to my wardrobe. I pulled out a short, cream colored, strapless dress and held it up in front of me.

"If I wear this tonight to the Hang, will I look too trampy and desperate?" I asked, looking at myself in the mirror.

"Nah, I think it'll be the right amount of trampy and you won't look desperate, just hot." Dorry explained to me.

"Good, sounds about right!" I laughed and laid it across the back of a chair. "So what are you gonna wear tonight?"

"Well, nothing too revealing, seeing as I'm a taken woman now!" She blushed slightly.

I laughed, "We'll figure something out!" I pulled her out of my room and stomped next door to hers. We locked ourselves in until we found the perfect outfit for her. A calf length, light blue dress with a little bit of floral pattern on it. We walked arm in arm down the path to the Hang and walked into the dingy room. Dorry immediately set off to find Darry and left me to my own thoughts. I was happy for her, so I didn't mind too much being on my own. I looked at all the people around, no Dally in sight. He must really be avoiding me if he didn't come here tonight.

I went over to the coolers lining the wall and grabbed whatever was in the first one. I didn't look at what it was as I drank it. I had it downed in a matter of minutes and grabbed another. I found a chair and continued sipping my drink when a short guy with a receding hair line approached me.

"Such a pretty girl shouldn't be sitting by herself over here." He came on to me.

"Yeah, well, whatter ya gonna do?" I said, shrugging.

He laughed, "I'm Neil. Neil Kellerman." He extended his hand to me. I took it and he pulled me up unexpectedly. I was a good inch taller than him, which was weird since I was only 5'4". I laughed uncomfortably, and chugged the rest of my drink. He pointed to the bottle, "Do you want another one of those?"

"Yup." I said, hoping he'd get the hint that I didn't want him here. He scampered off and brought back another bottle, "Thanks." I mumbled, not looking him in the eye. This cycle went on for a while. Us just sitting next to each other, not talking until he asked if I needed another drink.

He finally mustered up the courage after about 5 bottles. "Do you wanna go for a walk with me?" I wasn't even sure if I could walk in a straight line, but the music was giving me a headache and I needed to get out of there. "Sure," I replied. He walked me down to a wood bridge and stopped in the middle of it. "I love the way your hair looks when it blows in the wind like this." His sweaty hand pushed a lock of hair behind my ear. Was the wind even blowing? I had no idea. "You may not know this, being new here and all, but I'm known as the catch of the county." I looked at him like he was an idiot. How was this guy the catch of the county? Right, because his grandpa owned this place and he was probably loaded. He started telling me a story of this girl he stole from an employee and I completely zoned out. I might have even fallen asleep for a couple minutes, but I don't think he noticed. After 10 more minutes of him going through the exact dialogue of the story, he paused. It was my turn to say something. "Cool."

I guess he was asking me if he could kiss me, because that's exactly what he did. His nasty, dry lips were on mine and I wanted to kill myself. That sobered me up real quick. I pushed him off of me.

"What are you doin'?!" I asked him.

"I-I-uh..." He couldn't come up with anything to say, so he just kissed me again and this time he tried to shove his tongue down my throat.

"How 'bout no!" I pushed him away. He was fuming.

"No one tells me no! I'm the catch of the county, God dammit!" He came towards me again. Before I could push him away again, a figure threw him on the ground. A guy was on top of Neil pounding away at his face relentlessly. I stood in shock as this guy punched Neil so hard I thought I heard bones break. I studied him closer and realized that the fists belonged to none other than Dallas Winston. I shook my head and ran over to stop him before he killed Neil.

"Dally! Dally, stop! You did enough damage already!" I yelled.

He looked up at me and his fists slowed, "You want me to stop beating on this creep?"

Neil was on the ground clutching his jaw, crying. I nodded towards him and said, "I think you made your point."

Neil sniffled on the ground, "Wait till my grandpa hears about this. You'll be fired so fast your head will spin." Dally kicked him in the ribs and Neil whimpered.

He walked over to me, "What were you doin' with that guy anyway?"

"I was drunk. What's it to ya anyway?" I asked.

He shrugged.

"Aren't ya worried about getting fired?"

He shook his head, "They can't fire me."

"Why not?"

"Different story, different time."

I didn't say anything for a while. "Why'd you do it? I thought you were avoiding me."

"I really don't know why I did it. You just looked like you were in trouble." He explained.

I nodded slowly. "Thanks."

"No problem." He looked me in the eyes one last time and slowly turned around, leaving me alone with Neil again. This time he wasn't a problem, though.

Dally's POV

The next day I woke up with a headache. I immediately lit up a cigarette to help myself mull things over. What exactly had happened last night? I had never experienced a morning haze like this that wasn't from a hangover. If this is what maybe, possibly, kind-of liking a girl was like I wasn't sure if I was quite up for it. I took a last drag from my cigarette before putting it out and then slowly getting dressed.

So, it's really hard to walk by a pool seven times without looking suspicious. I don't think that Anna has noticed me yet but the other lifeguard on duty was definitely giving me the evil eye. On the eighth time around it looked like Anna was getting off for her break. I saw her get off her chair and then Soda walked up to her. What? She propped her sunglasses up on her head and began to bat her eyelashes at him. He touched her arm and she laughed and playfully hit him on the shoulder. She kept tucking her hair behind her ear and blushing. Hold up, seriously, what was going on here? I swore under my breath, Soda was gonna get it for this.

Later in the day I went up to the Hangout. It was a little after four so I thought Two-Bit might be there already; he always brought the beer. I got up to the door, but when I started to open it I heard voices coming from the inside. It was very obviously a boy and girl. I peered through the crack in the door and saw that it was Anna and Steve. Steve? Steve! What was with this girl? She was on every guy here! No, it couldn't be her, she wouldn't do this. It was the guys, they should know better than to mess with my girl! Whoa... she is not my girl, or... Why does she get into my head like this? I couldn't decide who I was more mad at, Steve or myself. I didn't want another incident like last night so I walked away from the door and started back to my room. About half way there I was Soda and everything I had just been holding back exploded.

"What do you think you're doin'?!" I yelled at him accusingly.

"Man, what are you talkin' about?" Soda asked, looking confused.

"You know what I mean! You already got Penny, you don't have to go after Anna too." I told him, fuming.

"Oh... So she was right. Listen, Anna told me about you and the catch of the county last night. She got me and Steve to fake flirt with her just to see how you'd react. A guy stickin' up for his girl is normal, but none of us know what you're doin'. I don't like her like that, but obviously _someone_ does. You need to talk to her." He talked slowly through the whole thing and I could tell her was worried about making me even more angry. Which was good, because I was fighting it. What kind of a stunt was that? What was this girl trying to do to me? I clenched my fists, then unclenched them, then clenched them again, it was just so frustrating! What's happening to me?!

"Fine," I finally grumbled, which made Soda grin.

"Go get her Dally!" I heard him yell after me as I stomped back up the path the the Hangout.

There were more people there now so it took me a moment to spot her. I walked up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Uhh, can we talk? Outside?" I asked her sheepishly.

"Sure," Anna said, shrugging her shoulders. She followed me out until we were about 10 feet away from the hall. We faced each other and she looked up at me expectantly.

"Well, I, uh, you, and..." I stuttered, I didn't know how I felt so what was I even supposed to tell her?

She held up her hand to get me to stop my rambling.

"Do you like me or not?" She asked me, being as straight and to the point as possible.

"Honestly... don't know." I replied.

"Well 'don't know' isn't good enough. You figure it out by the end of the week and get back to me. Take too long and you can be sure nothing's going to happen between us, 'kay?"

I nodded mutely.

"See you Friday." Anna waved then turned around and walked back inside. I think I may have stood out there the entire night.


	6. I'll Work On That

Ponyboy's POV

It was just another day in the main clubhouse when the black haired beauty walked in with her parents. They were seated in my section to bus. Thank God my uniform was freshly washed this morning.

I went about my duties while trying to eavesdrop on the family's conversation. Her parents were telling her about trying to get involved in activities around here. They were trying to get her take dance lessons. I wanted to speak up and tell them about how Darry taught dance classes around here but I would've had to admit to listening.

I walked past their table with my bucket full of dirty dished and I felt my feet slip out from under me. I heard someone shriek and dishes break all around me. I had broken glass in my hair and bits of food on my face. I sat up and shook my head trying to dislodge the broken pieces. I looked toward my feet and saw half a bagel and the floor smeared with strawberry cream cheese. Figures.

I sighed and someone above me asked, "Are you okay?"

I looked up to see the black haired girl's mother looking at me, concerned. "Uh, yeah, yeah, I'm fine. I just slipped on the bagel."

The woman looked at her daughter "Charlotte! I told you, you should've picked up that bagel when you dropped it! Now look what you did!"

"No, no it's okay, really!" I said, trying to defend the girl. "I'll just clean this up and it won't be a problem. Can I get you anything?"

The woman thought for a second. "I'm actually quite parched. Would you be a dear and get me some water?" She asked.

I nodded and went to get a broom and a pitcher of water. I propped the broom up against the wall. I filled the woman's and her silent husband's glasses. Charlotte's glass was already full to the brim so I pulled the pitcher away from the table. The spout on the pitcher clipped her glass and made it topple over into her lap getting the whole front side of her body wet.

"Oh my gosh! I am so sorry!" I grabbed for a napkin and started to try and soak up the water. I heard someone clear their throat and I looked up see Charlotte's Dad giving me the death glare. My eyes went back to Charlotte and I stopped breathing when I saw that my hand was directly on her chest.

"Oh my gosh!" I threw the napkin down and took a few steps back. She had a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh.

"I'm really sorry." I said again, putting my hands up to surrender.

"No harm done." She flashed a smile at me and then glanced at the floor, "Well, maybe a little harm done."

"Ah, I'll get someone else to clean this up so I don't make it any worse." She laughed again; it was a bright, tinkly sound. It was great. I grinned slightly and went back to the kitchen where I had one of the other guys clean up for me. I leaned my forehead against the cool refrigerator door. Charlotte. She sure was pretty. And I sure made a fool out of myself. For the love of God, I hoped I wouldn't have to see her again, because I could tell that the next time it would be much, much worse.

For the next few days all I thought about was Charlotte. I was trying desperately to get her out of my head but it wasn't working. It also didn't help that she came in everyday at the same time and sat in the same place, which was in my section. She was always trying to catch my eye or get my attention in some way. Her usual tactic was to go up to the breakfast buffet seven or eight times so she has a bunch of dirty plates around her. Whenever I go get the plates, they're never dirty though. She only puts like one piece of fruit or a pat of butter on them and call it good. She's relentless… But she's really pretty.

By the third day in a row of her showing up in my section, I decided it was time to ask Soda what to do. I walked into the kitchen and called his name, he came out of nowhere, "What's up goin' on?"

I jumped a little. "I need some advice… about a girl." I almost whispered the last part.

"Ooh, sounds juicy. Spit it out." He ordered.

"Well this girl… She's really pretty… and she's been coming here for breakfast everyday this week and she always sits in my section. I think she might like me, but I'm not sure what to do. I don't want to be totally wrong about this and make more of fool out of myself." I looked at him pleadingly.

"What make you think that she likes ya, bud?"

I explained everything that had happened in the past couple of days in great detail.

He blinked a couple of times and a slow grin started to form on his face, "It looks like the only thing you can do is ask her out."

"What?! No! What if doesn't say yes?" I freaked out.

"She ain't gonna say no. From the sounds of it, she's gotta pretty big crush on ya, Pone." He clapped my shoulder.

I sighed deeply as I pushed open the door back into the dining room. Here goes nothing. She looked like she was about to leave. She had her sweater on and she was pulling a couple of coins out of her bag for a tip. I set my shoulders off and I walked straight towards her. She noticed me stomping around and looked at me with those big brown eyes. My stride stuttered and I tripped over my own feet slightly. I caught myself on her table and I said, "Hey," as smoothly as I could.

"Hi," She smiled at me. Shit, what next? My name, she needs to know my name!

"Hi, I'm Ponyboy." I extended my hand to her.

She took it and shook it softly, "I know."

I looked at her, confused, and she pointed to my nametag, giggling.

I put my hand to my forehead and blushed. How dumb of me. I inhaled sharply. This was it, now or never. "Uhm, I was wonderin' if maybe you wanted to go out on a date tonight."

She almost jumped out of her skin, "Really? Sure!"

I smiled at her reaction, "Great, how about we meet in here at about eight, after the dinner shift."

She smiled ear to ear and nodded her head like there was no tomorrow.

I was on cloud nine all day waiting until eight o'clock. I checked the clock every ten minutes and it was now 7:55. Only five more minutes until she would be here. Everyone was leaving for the night, but I hung around pretending to clean spotless tables. Soda gave me a thumbs up before leaving and I was alone. I heard a knock on the door and my head whipped up. I ran over and unlocked it, opening it for her.

We exchanged hellos and then she asked, "So what are we doing?"

Shit, I forgot to plan something for tonight. I had to make something up on the spot. "Uh- Well I thought we could have a late dinner here."

She smiled, "Sounds great."

I lead her to the kitchen and opened the fridge doors.

"So what do you like? We could warm up some steak. There's some green beans in here too, maybe pudding for dessert? Wait, here's some sweet gherkins, do you want some of these?"

We ended up just eating some old chocolate pudding, but the evening only went down after that. I couldn't think of anything to talk about past 'sweet gherkins' and that got old real fast. I sat there fidgeting in my seat until I couldn't take the pressure anymore and I made some lame excuse for leaving. I could tell she looked disappointed but I had to get out of there. I doubt she'd ever want to see me again after that, she probably hates me. I decided that I would try to avoid her at all costs. She would get her way and at least I could try to stop thinking about her.

Charlotte's POV

I walked into the main restaurant at the club house at my usual time and sat down at my usual table. I immediately began looking for Ponyboy. I think I may have ordered a coke but I was way too distracted to notice anything that was going on around me. I could normally see Pony hustling around in the kitchen but he was still now where in sight. I kept looking and I saw something that might have been him. The person was peeking around the back door of the kitchen. I locked eyes with him and knew for sure that it was Pony, but just as fast as he appeared he disappeared back into the kitchen.

I knew in the back of my mind that he was obviously trying to avoid me, but that didn't stop me in the least. From the events of last night it was pretty apparent that he wasn't the best with girls. Actually, that's an understatement; he's a complete nervous wreck around girls. I was nervous last night too, but not nearly as jittery as he was. I just thought if I could be the confident one the maybe he'd be able to see that there was nothing to worry about and he would start acting normal.

I jumped up from the table and busted through the swinging door of the kitchen. I looked left and right and didn't see him anywhere. I started to walk around and immediately tripped and fell right on my butt. And there he was! Now that I was on the floor I was exactly on Ponyboy's level. He was sitting right next to the door with his knees pulled tightly up to his chest.

"Hey Charlotte," He almost whispered. He gave me a small smile and waved weakly.

I rolled my eyes at him and hopped up from the ground. I reached down, grabbed his hand, and yanked him up into a standing position.

"You want to go on another date tonight?" I asked, getting straight to the point.

"Uhh…" Was all he got out. He looked to be in a total state of shock and I could tell I would have to try harder.

"Pony!" I shook his arm, "do you want to go on a date?!"

He squinted his eyes at me and after what seemed lie and eternity, he finally just said, "Sure."

"Cool, meet me at the hangout tonight at seven?"

"How do you know about…?"

"I asked around! So, seven?"

"Sure." He said again.

I stood in the very front of the hangout waiting for Ponyboy to show up. I wore my bright red dress so he would be sure not to miss me. He walked in at about 7:05 and I practically pounced on him.

"Hi Pony!" I squealed.

"Hi…"

"You wanna dance?"

"I don't know. I'm not very good and I uh, I've never…" He trailed off.

"Never what?" I asked him.

"I never really danced wit a girl before." He answered, rubbing the back of neck and looking at the ground.

"Well, there's a first time for everything, come on!" I grabbed his hand and pulled him onto the dance floor. He looked around and his eyes grew wide. Like he had just now noticed how people danced when they were up here. I looked at him, at least expecting him to try but he just stood there, arms hanging limply at his sides.

"Pony!" I yelled, snapping hi back to attention. "Here, I'll show you."

I took his hands in mind and gently guided them to my hips. I put my arms around his neck and moved in closer. He must be loosened up by now, but when I looked up at him he wouldn't even meet my eyes. I would have to try even harder.

I moved even closer to him, if that was possible, then got up on my tiptoes to whisper in his ear.

"I really like you Ponyboy." I told him, my lips almost brushing his ears, which I started to notice, were turning bright red.

"I gotta get some air." He almost gasped. He let go of me and ran for the door. I took about two seconds to decide if I should go after him or not and then I took off right on his trail.

"Pony, please wait!" I yelled.

"Listen Charlotte, you're a real amazing girl," he began, turning to face me, "but I really don't think I can do this."

"Why not?" I pouted.

"It's just… You're so sure of yourself and confident and I just don't think I could live up to your standards. I'm a wreck around pretty girls." He explained.

I began to laugh and he looked even more scared than he then he was before. I went to sit down and gestured for him to follow me.

"You think you're a wreck around girls?! When you asked me out the day I just about peed myself!" I said through giggles.

"What?!" Pony said, surprised.

"I was just as nervous as you! I kind of get that way around cute boys." I responded, nudging his arm playfully and he blushed right away.

"Well you sure don't seem nervous today." He stated, trying to get his composure back.

"Well… I guess this is kind of silly but I thought if I seemed more confident maybe you would come around too. I wasn't lying before, I do really like you Pony." I laid my hand on top of his.

"Oh…" Was all he said. Pony looked down at his feet and then back at me and we just sat there staring at each other for a while.

"I really like you too Charlotte." He was talking so quietly I could barely hear him. Then I felt his hand move under mind and he gently squeezed my fingers. Then Pony leaned his head towards mine until our noses were just barely touching. We both still had our eyes open and my thoughts were fighting between how weird this was and how close our lips were.

"May I…?" He gulped. I suddenly realized what he was asking and my heart began to pound in my chest. A smile spread across my face but I couldn't find my voice to say 'yes' so I just nodded vigorously. I felt him squeeze my hand tighter and he slowly closed the gap between us. He gently pressed his lips against mine and they were so soft and sweet and perfect. I reached up to touch his cheek and it was burning hot. I pulled away and saw that he had turned a deep crimson. He saw me looking and laughed self consciously.

"I guess I have to work on that."

I giggled at that and all we could do was smile at each other.


	7. Screw It

**A/N: Thanks for following/favoriting/reviewing! Keep up the good work!**

**(Pony and Char are 14)**

Dorry's POV  
Ever since that night I talked with Darry I honestly couldn't tell whether things were getting better or worse between us. Sure he wasn't running away every time he saw me anymore, but he always just seemed… tense. Which of course just made me tense, and then everything just got even more awkward once that happened. I mean seriously, all I really wanted to do was just grab his face and kiss the guy! Of course he just wanted to take it slow, so then we're back to the whole tense area again.

We both really liked each other, and if it wasn't for his dang ex-girlfriend the situation would be so much easier! I was bound and determined to get over this weirdness with him, I had a sort-of date planned out for tonight and was hoping that maybe I could break the ice a little bit. Basically we were going to meet at the hangout and dance. I figured we'd both be in our element that way, plus it was the same we had met my first night here.  
I walked through the doors of the hangout after my last salsa session of the day. Normally Darry was one of the first people there, setting up for the staff party that happened almost every night. However, it seemed that the one time we had made plans to meet each other he was nowhere to be seen.

I sighed inwardly and was about to leave to go get the ice when Billy banged into the room holding two very large watermelons.

"You scared the living daylights outta me Billy!" I yelled at him while clutching at my chest, trying to get some normal air flow going in my lungs.

"I'm real sorry about that Dorry," he began, not sounding like he was even a little bit sorry, "but apparently Lisa's got some crazy emergency that she needs help with, but she couldn't ask Two-Bit because he went into town tonight, but I really needed to get these watermelons up here for the party tonight or everybody would get so mad at me!" Billy rambled on and on, sounding more and more frantic with every word.  
"So you're in a hurry?" I summed up for him.

"So I'm in a hurry." He repeated, looking desperate.

"You go, I'll take these." I told him, gesturing to the load in his arms.

"Thanks, you're a real doll Dorry!" He yelled over his shoulder after handing me the spiked watermelons.

They were a lot heavier than I was expecting them to be and I staggered under their weight. I was looking around the room for a spot to put them when Darry strolled in. I could tell by the look on his face when he saw me that he was not expecting me to be here this early.

"Umm, hey…" He said vaguely.

"UM. HEY. YOU WANNA HELP ME OUT HERE?" I knew he wanted to go and get all awkward on me like he always does, but it would be much harder for him to barely talk to me and avoid looking directly at me if I died by being crushed by oversized fruit.

"Oh! Right, right, I'll get those for you!" Darry took two big steps and was in front of me in a second. He hooked his hands underneath the bottom melon and as he did his large hands grazed over mine. We both felt it the moment it happened, but instead of lingering there like I would have preferred he snatched the two watermelons away from me and stomped across the room as quickly as he could.

The next half hour or so was spent just getting everything prepared and surprisingly, even after the hand thing, Darry seemed to be a lot more comfortable. So once the room filled up and the music began I didn't hesitate to grab his arm and pull him onto the dance floor.

I could not believe it, Darry finally seemed to be acting like the guy I first met, as soon as we started dancing he began to loosen up so much. He spun me around the floor and it wasn't long before we had everyone watching.  
Darry noticed and I could see a devilish glint sneak into his eyes. Suddenly he grabbed my back with both hands and threw me into low dip. The crowed whistled and Darry held me there longer, he smiled down at me and I couldn't help but laugh. Our little audience decided that it was the cue for the end of the routine so they joined us once again and began dancing around us.

Darry pulled me up slowly, inching my body closer and closer to his. Finally I was upright and pressed against his strong chest. He leaned in and I was so overwhelmed by the way his arms felt around me and the way he seemed to smell like the sun and the way my fingers curled into his thick hair… I couldn't help myself. I folded myself into his body and kissed him square on the mouth, not caring about taking it slow anymore. I felt his arms tighten around me and felt him kiss me back, and then it was over.

"I have to go." He whispered into my ear, his head dropped and rested on top of mine for only a moment before he turned around and practically ran for the door.

"Great," I muttered under my breath. I decided to call it a night and made my way back to my room.  
I was expecting the next day to be awful with Darry, but he was actually the one to approach me first.  
"I'm sorry about last night, it was just a little, uh, overwhelming." He tried to explain.  
"Don't worry, I felt it too. But I don't feel that just a plain 'I'm sorry' is going to make this better." I replied. He gave me a questioning look. "It's our day off, you wanna make it up to me?"  
"What did you have in mind?" He asked.

"Go get on your swim trunks and meet me back here in ten minutes." I told him. I half ran back to my room to change. I picked out my cutest swim suit and threw on shorts and a t-shirt over it. I fished a huge bag out of the back of my closet and packed it with towels, sunscreen, and a pair of sunglasses. I slung the bag over my shoulder then flew out the door and took a flying leap over the stairs.

Darry was right where I had left him, but now he was in a pair of plain blue swim trunks and a black t-shirt.  
"You ready to go?" I asked enthusiastically.

"I guess." Darry shrugged. I grabbed his hand and pulled him behind me. We were about half way there when he realized where we were going.

"Wait, are we going to the pool?"

"Uh huh!" I smiled.

"The pool? Really? Why? It's going to be so crowded! Are we even allowed in there with all the residents?"  
"We're going because it's hot and we don't have to work and swimming is fun and because you totally blew me off last night and have to make it up to me!" I tried to sound like I was joking about that last part, but a part of me really did want to make him feel guilty. "And I asked Anna about it and she said that it was fine!"

"Are you sure?"

"Positive!" I gave Darry's hand a reassuring squeeze.

We walked through the gates a few minutes later and it was just as crowded as Darry had expected. I told him I would scope out a place to sit and he went to buy us a couple of cokes. Miraculously I found two empty lounge chairs and quickly claimed them by laying the towels over top of them. I saw Darry looking around for me and waved him over the spot I had found.

He set the drinks down and just as I turned around to face him he began to take his shirt off. Sweet Jesus I swear it happened in slow motion. He crossed his arms in front of him and gripped the bottom on the t-shirt with his fingertips. His muscles flexed as he raised his arms above his head, peeling the black fabric away from his glistening skin. Everything above his trunks was perfectly toned and tanned and hard, I could only imagine what was under his trunks…

He plopped into the chair next to me and I snapped back to reality, if I had been drooling at all he didn't seem to notice. It was definitely time for a swim to help cool off a little.  
We were at the pool for over three hours when we finally decided that the best way to beat the heat was to just find someplace with air conditioning. We were walking past the main clubhouse when Darry's little brother Ponyboy came racing out towards us.

"Darry!" Pony took a deep, gasping breath before continuing, "I need your help right away! I was just in there looking for Soda but he wasn't there and I'm freaking out!"

"Hey, what is it Pony?" Darry asked, concern furrowing his brow. He led his brother over to the steps and they both sat down. I followed at a distance, not wanting to intrude.

"I was working the breakfast shift this morning and she wasn't there!" Pony told Darry, acting like it was the worst possible thing that could have ever happened to him.

"Slow down Pony! Who wasn't there?" Darry asked.

"Charlotte. Charlotte wasn't there, and she's always there Darry! Always!"

"Who's Charlotte?"

"This girl…" Ponyboy suddenly turned blush-y and wistful, "I met her last week and last night we went on a date and I kissed her."

"That's great Pony!" Darry congratulated him, clapping him on the shoulder.

"No, it's not great! Because before we kissed she came to breakfast every morning to see me, and the day after we kissed, she's not there! She probably didn't like it, she probably hates me! Aw man, she hates me Darry!" Ponyboy went back to completely falling apart and dropped his head into his hands.

"Just hold up kid! I promise she doesn't hate you Ponyboy. She may just be nervous about seeing you now that you kissed, that's normal. Or maybe now that she knows she's got you she doesn't feel the need to try and pick you up over the breakfast buffet! Either way, all you have to do to find out is talk to her. Trust me, no girl is ever going to give up on you that quick Ponyboy, you got a lot going for ya kid. Who knows, maybe she'll even be at dinner tonight instead!"

"Dang it! Dinner is a whole different situation!" Ponyboy groaned.

"You'll be fine." Darry reassured him. Ponyboy rolled his eyes but still smiled at his older brother.

"Thanks for the help Darry." Ponyboy said, getting up from his spot on the steps and re-entering the main clubhouse. Darry stood up too, but I walked up to him and stopped him before he could go anywhere.

"That was really great Darry." I told him, laying my hands on his chest.

"That? What about it?" Darry asked me, looking skeptical. He had to deal with his brothers everyday so I knew it was no big feat for him, but I had never seen that side of him before. He was so calm while Ponyboy was so crazy, he knew just what to say to make his brother feel better, he gave good advice, and you could tell how much he loved and cared about Ponyboy by the way he talked to him. I wish I had someone like him in my life when I was growing up.

I decided against trying to explain all of that to him and just pushed my arms up around his neck. "You're just really great." I rocked up onto my tip-toes and pecked him on the cheek.

"I could say the same about you." He smirked down at me, resting his hands on my waist. He dipped his head down towards mine and murmured, "Now how 'bout a real kiss?"

I never thought I would like the scent of chlorine but somehow Darry managed to make it intoxicating. I couldn't seem to get enough of him as his lips encased mine. He pulled my body towards his until our hips were pushing against each other. We separated for just a moment and the second kiss was even deeper than the first.  
This was normal behavior for most couples but I couldn't help but take into account that this was the closest that Darry and I had ever been since we got together. This made me remember about that very emotional conversation about 'taking it slow' and a certain ex-girlfriend.

I broke away from Darry and looked him in the eyes, "I thought we were taking it slow." As much as I wanted to kiss him like that every second of every day, I didn't want him to act in a way that he would regret.

"Right, we promised that we were going to take it slow. Of course," He pulled away from me, righting himself and pulling back up to his full height. "Is walking you back to your room slow enough?"

"As long as we don't walk too fast," I joked. Darry laid his arm around my shoulder and lightly kissed the top of my head. He walked me the entire way home like that.

Today both Darry and I had classes but none of them were together. He had one less than I did so he got out of the studio about an hour earlier than I did. After my last class I went looking for Anna by the pool but saw that it was busy and she wouldn't be done for a while. I didn't really feel like sitting in my room by myself so I made the small trek up to Darry's room to see if he wanted to hang out.

I got up there and saw through the screen door that he was set up in front of the TV with a six-pack of beer and an entire chocolate cake. I laughed quietly to myself; there was something oddly funny and kind of cute about watching Darry eat cake with just his fingers. I rapped lightly on the door frame and he called "Come in!" I saw that he was completely enthralled with Beverly Hillbillies, he waited until the first commercial break to even look away from the screen. He seemed like a little kid, minus the beer, and again there was something cute about how into the show he was.

"What's up?" He smiled.

Darry's POV

I cannot believe this girl. I mean, dragging me to the pool on my day off? This place is so jam-packed with residents that I can't walk two feet in front of me. I'm not even sure if we're allowed to be in here, but Dorry seems to think it's okay. She looks so cute wandering around the edges of the pool looking for chairs. I see her find a couple near a family with what seems like 3,000 kids. She puts our bag down and lays out the towels and waves me down from where I'm standing by the snack bar. I give her a small nod from behind my sunglasses to let her know that I see her, but not enough to let her off the hook for bringing me here.

I order a couple of Cokes and make my way through the maze of people to where Dorry has set up shop. I set our drinks down on the white plastic table between the chairs. I give her a pointed look, but she's too preoccupied with unpacking only God knows what from that bag. It must be well over a hundred degrees out today, and that's saying a lot for upstate New York. I pull my black t-shirt over my head and throw it down next to me as a plop dramatically onto the chair, sighing deeply.

"Oh, hush!" Dorry reprimanded.

"No. You know I didn't want to come. I'll sigh if I want to."

She threw a death glare at me. She took a sip of the Coke I bought before shimmying out of her cutoff shorts and plain gray t-shirt. Ho. Lee. Shit. She was sporting a red bikini with white polka dots and high waisted bottoms. She looked like a pin-up model. One that would definitely be on the walls of my little brother's room. I could feel my blood rushing to... down there and scrambled to find something to cover myself with. I fumbled to grab my shirt and put it strategically over my blue swim trunks. I snatched the pop off the table in a failing effort to cool myself off.

Dorry looked over at me. My sudden movements must have thrown her off. "You okay over there?"

I stuttered, "Y-yeah, never better. Uh, you wanna go for a swim?" I asked quickly.

"Sure! That sounds great!" She agreed. She moved to get out of her chair.

"Okay! You take the lead! I'll be right behind you!" I said, trying to shield her from the offending area. She laughed and started walking towards the water.

It's harder than one would think to walk 20 feet with a raging hard-on and protect the innocence of the millions of children at the pool than you would think. I walked as close as humanly possible behind Dorry without any part of my body touching hers. She slid in gently and I did a hasty cannonball into the relatively cold water.

When I came up from my dive, Dorry was swimming over to where I landed and asked, "Are you sure you're okay?"

I glanced down to my shorts and it looked like the water was making them bunch, "Yeah. I'm great."

She had a mischievous glint in her eye. "Good," she nearly whispered as she reached for my hand under water. She laced our fingers together and pulled herself closer to me. I kept her a good couple of inches away from me... I had to keep _some_ sort of mystery in our relationship. She licked her lips and batted her wet eyelashes at me. I knew what she wanted, but we promised to take things slow... even though that might kill me. Plus, we were in a public place and the idea of all the residents seeing the dance instructors making out in the pool might spark some controversy.

I did the only thing I could think of to stop this. I pulled away from her and threw a tidal wave straight to her face. She sputtered for a moment before retaliating. We were in an all out splashing war before Anna blew the whistle at us from her lifeguard stand. One crisis averted.

The next night I had Soda steal me one of the amazing chocolate cakes from the kitchen. I took that, and a six pack from the hangout back to my room for the night where I was just gonna kick back and relax all night. Dorry and I hadn't made any plans for tonight, so I figured she was probably having a girly-bonding night with Anna. I was perched on the floor in front on my 12-inch TV with the entire cake and a bottle of Kellerman's finest when someone knocked on the door. I was too enthralled by the new episode of the Beverly Hillbillies to get up.

"Come in!" I yelled without taking my eyes off the screen. I heard the door open softly and someone take a few steps in. I could feel eyes on me from the door way. I took a swig of my beer and kept watching. A stabbed a couple of mouthfuls of cake and a couple more sips of beer before the commercial break when I finally looked up. Dorry was standing in the door frame with a small smile on her face.

"What's up?" I asked her.

"Oh, I just wanted to see if you wanted to hang out, but I don't want to disturb you..." She turned to go back out the door.

"No, no, don't leave!" I said, almost sounding panicked. She turned back around and leaned against the door frame again. I gave her a small nod that signaled her to come closer to me. I set the cake down on the floor next to me, and when she got within range, I grabbed her by the waist and pulled her down onto my lap as she shrieked. I gave her a peck on the cheek that told her to shut up because the show was coming back on and she settled into my lap with her back against my chest and my chin on her shoulder. I couldn't help but to breathe in the scent of her skin as we sat so close to each other. She smelled like the best mixture of sunscreen and wood from the dance studio. I nuzzled my face into her neck and started planting small, feather-light kisses along the base of her neck up to the bottom of her earlobe. She reached back without looking away from the black-and-white mansion on the screen and held my face where it was, close to her body. She leaned her head back onto my shoulder and turned her head to face mine. She gave me one, longing kiss and turned away from me again.

"We promised we'd take it slow, remember?" She said softly.

"I wish I didn't." I muttered.

She laughed lightly and leaned back against me. I tightened my grip around her waist and returned my gaze to the television.

The next day Dorry and I had a day full of couples dance classes, ending with a 10:15 for crying out loud! We were both so tired by then that we were glad when our night-school students didn't show. It was our first break all day. We waited around for the allotted hour of class time before calling it a day. I popped up from my place on the floor at 11:14 and looked out the door for any sign of our students. Nothing.

"I think it's finally safe for us to go." I said across the room to Dorry.

"Thank God. I probably would've passed out if they actually showed up." She sighed with relief.

I walked across to where she was and held out a hand to help her up. She grabbed on and I yanked her up, making her face-to-face with me. "Come on, darlin'. I'll walk you home. It's too dark for you to go by yourself."

"Ugh, home. It's so far away!" She whined.

"If you'd rather, you can just stay in my room for the night. You can even have the bed! I'll take the floor." I suggested.

"That sounds amazing." She stretched her arms out, "But only if you carry me there. Otherwise, I might just sleep here." She joked.

I smiled and turned my back to her, "Jump on!" She did as instructed and clobbered her way onto my back. I took us the short way back to my room and slid her off my back and onto my bed. She yawned, "I need something to sleep in."

"Okay. What do you request? A simple t-shirt, or one of those sexy dress shirts?" I joked.

She laughed softly, "Just a t-shirt would be great."

I reached into a drawer and pulled on out and tossed it at her head. I watched her unfold it and look to make sure it was acceptable. She looked up at me and a I looked back at her, confused.

"Turn around! I need to change!" She ordered. I did as told and heard her pants fall to the floor and slide towards my nightstand.

When I thought I had given her ample amount of time to change her shirt, I turned around. I caught her with arms in the air, sliding the shirt over her head. I caught a glimpse of her bra and then her panties before it was covered by the white fabric that went down about mid-thigh.

I stammered, "Uh-uhm, I'm sorry about that. I-I thought you were done."

She turned red, "Oh, uh, it's okay."

I took a couple of steps towards her to get in my drawer for my sweats when I noticed something weird about the shirt she was wearing.

"Hey, I think you put that shirt on inside-out." I got even closer to her and pulled up on the hem. "Let me help you with that." I said softly. She nodded quickly and I saw her breath quicken. She lifted her arms along with mine as a pulled the shirt off of her body. My hands brushed against her sides as I lifted the shirt, and I felt a jolt of electricity run through my arms. I tried not to stare at her nearly naked body as I turned the shirt right-side out. I could feel her breath on my face, and her body close to mine. There was no way that I could look in her eyes because I knew she was so out of my league. I handed the shirt back to her and stole a quick glance. She was even more gorgeous than I ever imagined her. She took the shirt out of my shaky hand and threw it by the side of the bed. I gave her a confused look, and she grabbed my face and kissed me. Hard. My hands automatically went to her hips and I guided us towards the bed. She lied down and scooted her way to the head of the bed. She smirked as I crawled over to where she was and put my knees on either side of her legs. She guided my mouth to hers and started a full frontal attack with her tongue. Her hands traveled south and lifted up on the hem of my t-shirt and we broke apart only long enough for me to get it over my head. In the heat of the moment, I didn't want to waste any more time. I went down for my zipper.

"Are you sure about this?" She asked me.

"Definitely." I said confidently.

"What about taking it slow?" She asked with our mouths millimeters away from each other.

"Screw taking it slow. I just want to be with you." A smile light up her entire face as she twisted her fingers through the back of my hair and pulled my face down to hers.

When it was all said and done, her exhaustion got the best of her and she fell fast asleep under the covers. I wrapped my arm around her waist and pulled her back into my chest. I took a deep breath of her familiar smell and knew I felt something more than like for her.


	8. Gettin' It On In the Pool Shack

**A/N: Warning, Dally is a little OOC in this. Please deal with it accordingly. Also, this is our last update for this week. After this, we will be trying to go by a once a week schedule. **

Dally's POV

"I'm sorry, is this some sort of joke?" Anna asked me, narrowing her eyes.

"Why would I joke about this? You wanted me to make a choice, and now you have your answer, happy?" I answered.

"N-no!" Anna sputtered, crossing and un-crossing her arms several times. It was obvious she wasn't expecting to hear what I told her today. "Dally… I wouldn't have done that to you if I had thought –"

"Thought what?"

"You were supposed to say yes." She choked out.

"One night stands never turn into love stories." I spat out harshly.

"But," Anna tried to interrupt.

"Get used to it sweet cheeks." I told her coldly. I swiveled on my heel and began to walk away, I thought I may have heard something like crying from her direction so I walked faster, getting away from her as quickly as I possibly could.

I made it to my room without having to face anyone else I knew, it was hard enough having to hide my true feelings from Anna. I probably would have snapped if anyone had approached me after that. I leaned against the back of my closed door and took a deep, yet shaky, breath. I had never felt the way I felt with Anna with any other girl in my entire life. All I ever had were lame first dates with a bunch of sloppy hook-ups. All those other girls were kind of fun for a night or two, but I was never worried that I wouldn't be able to find another one the next week or the week after. Now I was absolutely terrified that I would never find another girl like Anna. Which is exactly why I had to turn her down.

What happens when she expects more than I can give her? What happens if we're only okay for a while and then she gets bored with me? What happens when she finds another guy she likes better? What happens when I make a mistake that I can't fix? They were all possibilities, and all inevitable if we were together now. I had never been in anything remotely close to a real relationship, all these emotions were too much for me to take in and handle all at once, it was easier to ignore them than invest in them and get hurt even worse down the line.

I was about to take a nap when someone rapped on the door right behind my head. I opened the door cautiously; I rarely had visitors this time of day.

"Dallas Winston?" It was a nervous looking kid dressed in a waiter's uniform.

"What do you want?" I asked sarcastically, leaning against the doorframe.

"It's um, Mr. Kellerman, he wants to see you in his office. Now," he told me, wringing his hand nervously, like he would be the one to get in trouble with the boss if I didn't agree to show up.

"Why?" I sneered.

"I don't know alright?! Will you just go?" He snapped at me, I could tell he still thought it was his own ass on the line though.

"Whatever."

The waiter opened his mouth to respond but closed it promptly. He sighed and then took the stairs down the porch two at a time. He looked over his shoulder once to give me the death glare and I heard him mutter something to the effect of "I hope he fires you." Like that was ever going to happen.

I meandered into Max's office maybe forty five minutes later, hands in my pockets, not caring an ounce.

"You're late." He growled at me, slapping both hands down on his desk.

"You never really specified a time Max." I sat down in one of his chairs sideways, swinging my legs over one of the armrests. "You mind if I smoke in her Max?" I asked, pulling a pack out of my jacket pocket.

"Don't you dare. If you ever paid any attention you would know that employees are not allowed to smoke on the job. Of course, you're never really 'on the job' are you Mr. Winston?"

I only laughed in response.

"You do remember why you are Mr. Winston? Don't you?"

"Course I do Max,"

"_You have to be kiddin' me." I looked up at them in total shock; out of all their reactions I was not expecting this. _

"_We would never joke about something like this son. You had so many amazing opportunities, we gave you a choice, and you picked wrong. Now we're making the decision for you." My father loomed over me, giving me that 'I'm so disappointed in you' look that parents always give their kids to make them feel guilty. _

"_Yeah, what if I don't wanna go?" I leaned forward in my seat, testing my father's limits. _

"_You're going." _

"_No!" I shouted while jolting out of my chair, sending it flying backwards into the kitchen table. _

"_You're going, end of discussion. Start packing." Dear old dad left it at that and stalked away, banging the door to his room for extra emphasis. _

_ I kicked at the already overturned chair in frustration. I was an adult, they couldn't boss me around like this, they couldn't make these big life decisions for me without my consent. I knew I could runaway, find something else for myself, away from all this bullshit, but at the same time I knew it wouldn't be worth anything. My parents were underhanded and devious, if I didn't agree to go now I knew there would be even worse consequences for me in the future. They would find a way to get me to do whatever they wanted, the always had, and they always will. _

_ I was about to storm up to my room and have an encore of slamming doors but someone knocked on the front door and as much as I just wanted to ignore them I knew they could see me through the window. I opened the door to see out mailman, I snatched the letters out of his hand and shut the door in his face. I was never really known for being courteous. _

"_Bills, bills, bills…" I stopped when I came across a letter addressed to my dad, but from someone I had never heard of before. I couldn't leave without at least some small act of rebellion so I ripped open the envelope and proceeded to read. _

_Dear Mr. Winston, _

_We have received your check and are thrilled at your incredibly generous donation to our establishment. This money will be put to extremely good use, with it we will be able to renovate all of our older buildings and even possibly add on some extensions the resort. All the management and staff thank you and your family profusely for what you have given us and we will always be in debt to you. Because of this I have been considering the deal you have offered to me concerning your son. I have looked into his background and although he does not have the most appealing track record, I understand the current situation you are in with him. In light of this situation I have decided to agree to your deal. We will give your son a job here at Kellerman's and I assure you we will do our very best to manage him in the way that you see fit. Once again I thank you so much for your donation, you are a great asset to our business. _

_Sincerely, Max Kellerman_

_ I read the letter over and over again. I ran to my dad's study and fished the key for his file cabinet out from behind his secret bookcase that he thought no one knew about. My dad kept records of every single thing he ever did, if there was any proof of what was in that damn letter it would be in here. The file cabinet was alphabetized so I flipped quickly to 'C' for all the copies of the checks he writes. I scanned each individual check looking for the name Kellerman, about fifteen in I finally found it. _

"_Holy shit…" I breathed; there were more zeroes on that thing than I could even count. _

_ Donation? More like compensation. This Max guy must be a complete idiot if thinks that my father's generous "donation" was anything less than a bribe. If I was such a problem child why even bother? My own dad had to bribe someone to get me away from him, and even then the guy he paid was reluctant to have me! Why couldn't I just be left alone? No one ever cared what I wanted, or cared at all. The only way I ever got anyone's attention was by acting out, and when my parents got bored with that I was so used to it I never stopped. I just want to something for myself for once. _

_ But here I was, once again, with no say in anything. Nothing was ever going to change. _

"My dad paid you off so he could get rid of me and send me to this hell hole!" I yelled.

"Lower your voice Mr. Winston, shouting at me will not help you. And that answer was incorrect, you are here to work, this is your job. Yet, so far you haven't lifted a finger here and do not contribute anything. That is about to change."

"Yeah right," I challenged him.

"I heard about your little confrontation with Neil, he is a well respected contributor to this establishment and I will not have you picking fights with him! This is your last chance, either you get your act together or I assure you you'll be out of here and on your way back home before you can light one more cigarette. And you know as well as I do that your father's punishment will be much more severe than mine, so I suggest you listen to me."

I took in a deep breath and ran a hand over my face before giving in "WhatdoIhavetodo?" I let out in one long rush, wanting this moment to last as shortly as it could.

"You're our new pool boy. Report there by five o'clock tonight and someone will be waiting to give you a list of your duties. Goodbye." Kellerman waved me out of his office.

I found a wall in the main lobby and swiftly banged my forehead against it. "Fuck," This was not going to be good.

Anna's POV

Nope. Not in this life. There was no way I would willingly work with Dallas Winston after he blew me off. No way. I had to go talk to Max. Hopefully I would get things straightened out and he would go on his merry way. I marched over to Kellerman's office and knocked loudly on the window of his door. I heard him mumble something unintelligible and I took that as an invitation to go in.

"Mr. Kellerman, I need to air a grievance." I said strongly.

"Ah, hello to you too, Miss Schmidt."

"Sir, how could you make Dallas Winston the new pool boy? He doesn't know how to clean anything let alone an Olympic size pool!" My voice rose with each word.

"I understand that he will need training, but his transfer in positions is a consequence from a spat he had with my grandson. I believe he said he was 'defending the honor of another employee'." He gave me a pointed look.

I sighed. "Just because he 'defended my honor' does not mean that I want to work with him every day!"

Max looked at me with a small smile, "Just think of this as a learning experience. I think you two can work out your differences and find a way to make this work."

I rolled my eyes and muttered, "Yeah, sure. One of us is gonna end up dead. And it ain't gonna be me." I turned around and walked out the door.

My vision was turning red at the thought of dealing with him all day, every day. I stormed over to Dorry's room to vent. I whipped open the door without knocking and witnessed something I would never wish on anyone. Dorry and Darry making out with very few articles of clothes on.

"Oh, my God. I'm sorry to ruin whatever is happening here, but I really need to talk to you!" I yelled.

Dorry shoved Darry's chest and he went flying off the bed and crashed onto the floor. "Why didn't you knock?!" She asked, grabbing a shirt.

I scoffed, "I didn't think I had to worry about walking in on you and your boyfriend!"

She laughed lightly and shrugged, "What's goin' on?"

"Boy problems." I stated, simply.

Dorry looked over to where Darry was gathering his clothes and nodded her head towards the door. "What?" He asked, "I'm a guy, I could be able to help!"

Dorry looked at me. "Fine." I said, "He can stay."

"So are we talking about _the_ boy or a new boy." She asked.

"The one and only."

"What happened. Did he give you an answer to your ultimatum?" She asked, leaning in.

"Yes, and he said no!" Dorry gasped. "And that's not even the worst part! He got transferred. He's the new pool boy!" I flopped face-down onto her bed. "He's trying to ruin my life!" I muttered into the mattress.

"Wait. Who are we talking about?" Darry spoke up. Dorry and I both gave him the evil eye.

"Dally. Who did you think?" Dorry said.

"Dallas Winston?" He asked, and Dorry nodded. "What's going on between you guys?"

I huffed and sat up on the edge of the bed. "So long story short. Remember the first night we got here?" He nodded, "Well, we kinda hooked up and then he avoided me for a long time, so I tried to make him jealous and it worked. Then he beat up Neal Kellerman, and then I told him to make up his mind if he liked me or not. And he said not."

Darry grinned, "Oh yeah! I remember hiding out in the bushes with him and he told me you guys did it." He seemed so proud of himself for remembering until Dorry punched his arm.

"Not the time." She scolded.

"Right. So now that we covered that. Tell me what I should do! We're going to be working together every day now!" I flopped back down on the bed.

"Well, if I were you, I would just pretend he's not there. He's probably only there to get a rise out of you, and no reaction will be the best reaction." Darry reassured me.

I thought about it for a second and a grin started to creep onto my face. "That's a really good idea, Dar. Thanks!" I hopped up from the bed and grabbed my bag that had somehow been thrown across the room. "Now go back to whatever you were doing!" I closed the door and walked next door to prepare myself to ignore the one guy that has ever rejected me.

The next day I felt much better about having to face Dallas at work. I grabbed my tightest red swim suit and made the trek to the pool. I made a pit stop in the changing room and went out to face my foe. He was cleaning out the filter nearest my chair and I walked past him, brushing his shoulder with my towel.

"Good morning, Sunshine." He smiled at me.

"Good morning to you too, Dally." I climbed up the steps to the top of my stand. He let out a low whistle. I looked at him and made a disgusted noise.

"Go clean something else." I said coolly.

He pouted, "Why ya bein' like this, doll. I thought you liked me."

I sighed dramatically, "And you made it clear you didn't feel the same."

He took a couple of steps closer to the stand and reached up to touch my leg and I jerked away. "Awe, babe. Don't be like that. Can't a guy change his mind?"

I kicked at his still outstretched hand, "No, now get lost." He looked stunned but did as he was told. He walked away slowly, looking back at me ever so often, and went around to the other filters. Yeah, I obviously did a great job ignoring him.

The day passed without any more advances by him and it was my night to leave early, so I didn't have to stay past closing to help clean. Today wasn't so bad. I'm pretty sure I can get through how ever long he's on probation or whatever.

The next couple of days went by relatively uneventfully. Dally only made a few passes at me, but none that were over the top. I didn't even have to say anything to him, my death glares were enough to shut him up. But the end of the day would be different. It was my night to stay late and most of the other pool staff requested tonight off. Something about a huge dance. I didn't care about the dances they had at the Hangout anymore. Who wants to go when you don't have anyone to dance with? Certainly not me. I was fine with staying late, but I was dreading who I had to stay late with. I only knew of one other person that was staying late, and it was the infamous Dallas.

The pool closed extra late tonight, due to it being a weekend, so it was actually getting dark by the time we closed up shop and all the other pool staff left. I waved to the last girl there and she gave me a sad, understanding smile.

"Do you want me to stay and help out?" She asked from the gate.

I turned and looked back to where Dally was picking up trash along the edge of the pool. He looked harmless. "Nah, I'm good! I'll see ya tomorrow!"

She smiled again and left the pool. I looked around and started to pick up cups and wrappers from all the residents who couldn't do it for themselves. I straightened some chairs and was sweeping the cement when I heard Dally from across the water.

"Hey, Anna. Could you come give me a hand? I can't get this filter clean."

"No, Dal. Just leave me alone. You're the one that told me no, remember?" I said loudly across the pool.

"I'm being serious Anna! I really need you're help with this! I haven't had to clean this filter before, every one else always gets it before I do."

My eyes shot to him. With the sun already down, and the blue sheen of the water reflecting on him he looked, well, amazing. I shook my head and looked back at the ground. No, he doesn't look amazing. It's just the water playing tricks on me. He rejected me, and I just can't forget that. I resumed sweeping and I heard his voice again.

"Anna, are you gonna help me or not?"

I threw the broom on the ground with a loud clang and I walked quickly over to his side of the pool. I shoved him away from the filter lid.

"God, Dallas! Why can't you do anything for yourself? Why do you always try to pawn off your work onto other people? Huh? Just do something for yourself for a change!" I ripped into him.

He didn't waste a moment. "Holy Shit! I wasn't asking you to hold my dick while I pee, I was asking for your help on something that I've never done before!"

I huffed at him. "You've cleaned every other filter in this pool, what makes this one so different?" I yelled.

"You know what?! Forget it! I'll figure it out on my own! Go back to what ever you were doing!" He leaned back down to the lid.

"No. Just let me do it, I came all the way over here." I nudged him with my knee.

"I got it." He said nastily.

"No, just move out of the way!" I shoved him, and he sprawled out on the cement.

"Oh. My God! Just let me do it!" He pushed me the other way. I teetered on the edge of the pool for a millisecond before falling in sideways. I came to the surface almost immediately.

"God dammit, Dallas! Why'd you do that?" I sputtered and wiped my eyes.

He concentrated on the ground to stifle his laughter, but I could see the grin on his face. "Sorry. I didn't mean to push you that far."

I climbed up the edge of the pool and stood like a wet dog. "What am I supposed to do? I already changed into my regular clothes! I can't walk back soaking wet! I'll get hypothermia!"

"Oh, shut up! It's like 70 degrees out, you'll be fine!"

"There is no way I am walking back waterlogged!"

He looked around for a minute and pointed in the general direction of the pool house where we kept all the pool noodles and extra towels. It was outside the gate and around the corner, so we couldn't see it from there, "Go wrap some towels around you or something. I don't care."

I let out some sort of shriek and stormed over to the pool house. I went in, looked around, and found a Kellerman's robe that a guest must've left. I peeled off my soaked clothes and I heard them plop on the ground. I reached for the robe and heard the door creak behind me. I looked over my shoulder and jumped when I saw Dally in the pool house with me.

"Jesus! Get out of here!" I yelled.

He shook his head and stuttered, "I- Uh- Uhm- I'm sorry. I thought you left..."

I held the robe in front of my body. "No you didn't! Why are you in here?" My heart was racing and I could feeling my breathing speed up.

He took a step closer, keeping eye contact. His eyes fell and he bent down, bringing a crow bar up with him. "I couldn't get the lid off. Needed some back-up." He was almost whispering.

I pursed my lips, "Why are you really in here?"

He dropped the crow bar back where it was and looked at my eyes again, "I feel really bad about saying no. Is there a chance I can change my answer?"

"Does your sudden change of heart have anything to do with the fact that I'm standing here completely naked?"

"No." He said sincerely, and I smiled widely. "And you're not _completely _naked." He reached out, grabbed the arm of the robe that was haphazardly covering me, and pulled it away.

I smiled slightly, "What exactly do you think is going to happen in here?"

He had a wicked grin on his face, "I think you know exactly what's gonna happen."

I bit my lip and snaked my arms around his neck and his hands went instinctively to my hips. He backed me up to a large pool floaty and I leaned back on it. He towered over me and I laced our fingers together, pulling him down. He hovered over me and mashed our mouths together roughly. His hands played up and down my sides and his mouth traveled to my jaw.

I pushed his chest softly so he would look at me. "Wait, Dal."

He rolled to be next to me and stroked my face, "Yeah, babe?"

I could feel myself blushing over the nickname. "Uhm, I know this is kind of a stupid question, but is this how our relationship's gonna be? Fighting and making up, over and over again?"

I felt him stiffen, "Why would you think that?"

I propped myself up on my elbow, "Well, I mean look at our relationship so far. It hasn't been the smoothest."

He moved his hand down to meet mine. "I'm gonna tell you something, but if you tell anyone I will deny it forever. I can't have people thinkin' I'm goin' soft." I nodded, "Ever since you got here, I've been doin' weird things. Like walking past the pool eight times in a day, and beating up Neal."

"Yeah?"

"I guess what I'm trying to say is that I was a real idiot for not staking my claim in you earlier. I think I'm in this for the long haul, but I've never had anything more than a random hookup before. So you'll have to bare with me."

I smiled. At least he was going to try, that's all I could ask for. I leaned down and kissed him sweetly. He took charge and bit my lip softly, "And remember not to tell anyone that. Or I might have to publicly punish you." He winked at me. Same ol' Dally.


	9. Not a Snorkel

Billy's POV

I carefully cut a hole in the side of the watermelon about the size of a bottle cap and slid it onto the neck of the vodka bottle. I flipped the whole thing over and watched as the liquor slowly filled the melon to the max. I was always stuck on fruit duty. The downside was that you had to buy all the booze yourself, but at least my spiking expertise was recognized.

I felt a slight breeze on the back of my neck. "Hey, how ya doing?"

I jumped and turned around. There was a short girl standing very close to me. She had light red hair and a crazed look in her eyes. "Who the hell are you?"

"Hi! I'm Jo. Jo Taylor!" She extended her hand to me, but we were so close that she just jabbed me in the gut. I took a step back and looked at her skeptically before taking her hand. She shook my arm enthusiastically and started blabbering on about something. I turned back to the melon which was now overflowing and I transferred the bottle to another melon. I looked back at her and now she was almost yelling with giant hand motions.

"Hey. I'm not deaf!"

She looked at me, confused.

"Stop. Yelling. I'm right here." She started laughing, and slapped my arm a little harder than I would've liked.

The other watermelon filled up and I threw the empty vodka bottle in the nearby trash can. I looked from Jo to the melons to the Hangout door.

I cut her off mid sentence, "Hey, you wanna carry one of these for me?"

"Yeah, of course!" I plopped one of them in her waiting arms and she sort of buckled under the weight and grunted. I laughed and guided her to the door. She rolled it out of her arms and started laughing really awkwardly.

"Guess what!" She turned to me.

"What?" I asked dully.

"I carried the watermelon!" She started laughing even harder.

"Uhm. Yeah. I know. I asked you to." I eyed her cautiously.

Her laughter slowed down and she sighed. "It's just really funny!"

"Yeah...Okay. So, uh, why are you here?" I asked.

"I'm actually looking for a job! And by job, I really mean a place to live."

"Well, you'll have to go talk to Ol' MaxiPad. He's the one in charge." I checked my watch, "But he's gone for the day by now, so you'll have to come back tomorrow."

She huffed, "Great. Now what am I supposed to do until then? I don't just want to go back to my hotel room all by myself."

I knew I would regret this, but there was something about her... "Why don't you stick around here for a while tonight. I'll introduce you to everybody and stuff."

Her eyes lit up and she jumped on me with a constricting hug. "Thank you so much, Billy! That would be awesome!"

A few long hours later, people finally started to show up. I walked Jo over to everyone who walked in and introduced her and she started talking a mile a minute. I slowly walked away to go grab a drink and turned away from the coolers to find her right in my face.

I gasped slightly, "What happened to talking to Julie there? You guys seemed to be hitting it off."

She twirled a little piece of hair around, "Well I was worried about you when you left."

"No need." I looked into the crowd and took a drink of my beer.

"Who are they?" I looked to where she was pointing. There was a couple making out in the corner. And by making out I mean having sex fully clothed.

"That's my friend Anna and her on-again/off-again boyfriend Dally. Apparently they're on again."

She nodded, "What's she doing with him? She looks to nice to be dating him. Or he looks to mean to be dating her."

"Trust me, she's a lot tougher than she looks."

She nodded again before pointing to another couple.

"That's Darry and Dorry. They're pretty much the It-Couple. They both dance and they're totally in love." I sighed.

"What's wrong?' She asked.

"Everyone has somebody. I have nobody." I took another swig of my beer. I glanced down at her from the corner of my eye. She had the kind of look that said she was up to something.

"You don't have nobody, Billy. You have-"

Soda cut her off. Thank God. "Hey, Billy. Who's this?"

"Oh, this is Jo. She's trying to get a job here."

She tore her eyes away from me to look at him. "Hi, Soda!"

I stared at her. I couldn't remember telling her his name, and I know he didn't already talk to her because she's been stuck to my side all night. What the hell? I had to get away from this girl, she was really freaking me out. She and Soda were really getting into a conversation about ice for some unknown reason, so I made an excuse about a headache and I went back to my room.

I had the next day off, so I decided to go down to the pond. No one was usually there in the day time, so I didn't bother grabbing a suit.

I pulled off my clothes and waded in to my waist. I heard a couple of splashes on the other side of the pond and figured they were just frogs or something. I floated on my back for a little before I heard bigger splashes. I sat up and looked over to where they were coming from. I didn't see anything at first, so I walked towards the middle of the pond to get a closer look.

I had only taken two steps forward when a giant figure popped out of the water.

"Hi, Billy!" Jo yelled. She was wearing a ridiculous goggle and snorkel set over her face. I wouldn't have been able to recognize her at first, but I knew that yell anywhere. Even if it was nasally because of the goggles.

I ducked farther under the water to try and cover myself. "What are you doing here?!" I tried not to sound panicked.

"I just heard some people talking about this place last night, so I decided to check it out!" She started to swim closer.

I looked down, thankfully the water was pretty murky so you couldn't see much. I laughed nervously and took a couple of steps back. "So, are you finding anything good under there with those goggles?"

"Actually, yeah! I found a couple bottles of beer and a bikini top!"

"Wow! That's great!" I took a couple more steps back and tripped on something. I came up yelling. "Oh my, God! There's something giant under here!"

"Oh. Let me look!" She put the snorkel in her mouth and dove under water and swam towards me. I scrambled for where to go, but I didn't know where she was in the water. She popped up a foot in front of me.

"Why didn't you tell me you brought a snorkel? We could've gone exploring together!"

I furrowed my brows and looked at her. "What?"

"You're hiding your snorkel under water! Is there something wrong with it or something?" It took me a minute to register what she was saying.

"Oh my, God! Not a snorkel!"

Now it was her turn to be confused. "What do you mean? What else would it be?" She dove back under.

"Holy shit! Jo, get back up here! Get away from my snorkel!" There was no use. She either couldn't hear me or couldn't understand what I was saying from under the water. I just tried to get back as fast as I could and covered myself. I felt her fingers brush against my upper thigh and I jerked away.

She came back up, and looked at me. Her cheeks were bright red. "Oh, so not a snorkel. Uhm, sorry about that."

My cheeks burned, too, "Uh. It's fine, I guess. How about you just leave now?"

She seemed offended, "Why? I was here first! Why don't you leave?!"

I cocked my head and pursed my lips at her, "Unless you want to see my snorkel again, you have to leave first. Don't you have to go talk to Max today?"

She huffed, "No. He claims that he has weekends off, even though he's in charge of everything and that includes what happens on the weekends!"

"Well, it's Sunday, so you won't have long to wait!"

"Yeah, but it's a long time when you're running out of money to pay for a hotel room!"

I cleared my throat. We were getting off topic. "So are you gonna go?"

"Oh. Uh- yeah." She went back towards shore and turned around to look back at me, "I'll see ya around, Billy!"

I raised my hand and waved at her.

Once she left, I got out of the water and made my way back home. I ran into Darry on the way to my room.

"Hey man, where's the better half?" I joked.

He laughed, "She's got lessons for another couple of hours."

"What are you even gonna do with yourself for that long?"

"I don't know! But hey, you know that new girl that's looking for a job?"

"Do I ever..." I mumbled.

"What?"

"Yeah, I know her."

"Ok, so I've been seeing her literally _everywhere. _I swear I even saw her in the bushes outside my room this morning when I got up."

My eyes went wide, "Are you serious?"

"Completely. I'm starting to think that she's-" He was cut off by the sound of someone running at us down the path.

Jo skidded towards us and came to a stop by spraying us with dirt.

"Oh, my God, Darry. I have to tell you the funniest story. So, today I went swimming at that pond and then Billy was there and he was completely-"

"NO! Stop right there! It was not a snorkel, I get it! Never tell that to anyone! Just shut your mouth for once in your life and never tell anyone!" I yelled at her.

She looked stunned for a second before he turned on one heel and walked away from us. Darry looked at me a little stunned, too, "That was kinda harsh, man."

I took a deep breath, "Yeah, well it had to be done." I clapped him on the shoulder before walking around him and going into my room.

I didn't come out until the ext day for fear of Jo not listening to me and blabbering about seeing my snorkel. I had to work at 10 the next morning, so I stayed holed up until then.

I had to check in with Max in the morning to get the list of guests that would be checking in, so I made my way over to his office. I stopped dead in my tracks and ducked behind a tree when I saw Jo sitting on the ground outside his office. She looked like she was sleeping with her head and arms resting on her knees. I squinted my eyes to get a better look, her body was actually shaking. Was she crying? Oh, shit. Was she crying over what I told her yesterday? She probably was, I bet no one had ever yelled at her like that before. I had to go apologize, but I didn't want her practically stalking me again.

I tiptoed up to the office and stood next to her. "Hey, are you okay?"

She looked up at me with red, puffy eyes. "No."

"Uh, what's wrong?" I asked uncomfortably.

She looked at me again, "Not that you would care, but I didn't get the job. So now I'm broke, homeless, and jobless." She started to cry harder.

I bent down and awkwardly patted her on the shoulder and tried to think of something to say. "We'll get you a job. Don't worry about it."

"How? I can't stay around here. I'm out of money, and I don't have anywhere to stay." She wiped her eyes.

I knew I would regret saying this, but I saw a different side of her. A vulnerable one. One that said she actually had feelings, and not just creeping around. "Uhm, until you get a job, you can stay with me. In my room."

Her head whipped up, and a huge smile formed on her face. Oh shit.

_Jo's POV_

"_It was really great seeing you Jo! I'm so glad you came up to visit!" Baby smiled. We were standing out on the back porch of their house and it was late so the moonlight illuminated her hair and made it seem even more frizzy and wild than it already was. _

"_Yeah, it was real nice…" I said, looking around anxiously. It was heard to tell her that my little visit had an ulterior motive. Baby was always so warm and welcoming I felt terrible for lying to her, but I had to equally terrible time trying to figure out how to tell her the truth. "I need money!" I blurted, the words exploding out of my mouth uncontrollably. _

"_What?" Baby's smile slowly turned in the opposite direction._

"_I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry! It was great to see you, but that's not really why I came here. See, the rent is due on my apartment, band the landlord says if I don't pay it off by the end of the week he's going to kick me out. But I just lost my job, so I can't pay it. And if I don't have a job, I don't have money, and without money I won't be able to rent a new place. But who's going to hire someone who's been fired? No one, that's who! I just didn't know what to do Baby!" The second explosion went off and it was even more disastrous than the last. Baby was only my cousin but she was basically the only family I had. I'd love to say that my parents were the ones who abandoned me, but I ran away from home as soon as I graduated high school. I thought I could take care of myself, silly me! Now I haven't had contact with my parents for years and all my brothers and sisters are non-existent. It was completely selfish of me to just come here and beg for money but I knew my Aunt and Uncle had plenty of it and I knew Baby would always be willing to help me out. _

"_It's okay, it's okay. Come on, let's sit down." She guided me towards a small wooden bench pushed up against the side of the house. "I'm really proud of you for having the courage to ask somebody for help. I'm sure if I just ask my Dad – " _

"_NO!" I shouted, cutting her short at the mention of her Father. "We can't tell Uncle Jake!"_

"_Well why not?" She asked, suddenly looking a lot less agreeable. _

"_Because he'll just go to my parents! I know I made a mistake when I did what I did, but there's no way I can face them after that! I told them I could succeed without them and I will not let them see that I was wrong… That I failed. We cannot let Uncle Jake drag them into this." I explained desperately. _

"_Well I'm not lying to my Dad again. Not after what happened." Baby retorted, crossing her arms in defiance. We sat there in total silence, it was so awkward and tense, I really thought it was all hopeless, that she was just going to give up on me. _

_The bench creaked and I figured Baby was getting up to go back inside. Instead she got up and stood in front of me. _

"_What…?" I questioned after a few minutes of her just standing there and staring down at me. It was honestly starting to get a little creepy. _

"_I have an idea." She stated simply. _

"_And…?" I leaned forward, basically begging for more information. _

"_I'll get you enough money for a hotel for about a week, but you'd have to do something for me in return." _

"_What is it?! Anything! I'll do anything. Just tell me what it is!" Now I was literally begging, I was willing to get down on my knees and grovel if I had to. _

"_Do you know where Kellerman's is Jo?"_

"_Yes?" _

"_I'll give you the money, if you promise to get yourself a job there." _

"_Hold up!" I jumped up from my spot on the bench and turned myself so I was facing Baby. You want me to get a job there? I thought this Kellerman place was where all the big bad scary stuff went down earlier this summer. What happened to 'I'm not lying to my Dad again. Not after what happened.'" I mimicked her, using that mysterious gloomy tone that always came out whenever she talked about their vacation. "What happened to that?! Why would you ever want me to go to a place like that?!" _

"_I know it seems crazy…" She trailed off._

"_Yes, it's crazy! Just stop right there, it's totally and completely crazy!" _

"_You don't understand Jo! I know you know all about what happened there. I just want you to get a job there so you can… check up on things?" Baby told me unsurely, like she had no idea how else to say it. _

"_You want me to spy on your ex-boyfriend." I stated flatly. _

"_No!" She protested. _

"_Yes!" I shot back. I was surprised to be hearing something like this from Baby. She was always the mature, put together one. Was she really this insecure about her relationship with some buy she had barely even known for a month?_

"_I just want you to check up on everybody there, see if there doing alright."_

"_And by everybody, you mean that fella Darry right?" I smirked at her, giving her that 'I can totally see right through you right now' look. _

"_No… Like Penny! She's was sick, maybe I want to find out if she's doing better now. And… Billy! Has he met someone yet? These are very intriguing questions you know, they've been keeping me awake at night for some time now!" Baby fought back, struggling to keep face. _

"_I got it, you don't have to explain yourself. I got your back." I sighed, with what she was doing for me I guess I really did owe her one now anyway. _

"_Thanks Jo. So you'll do it then?" _

"_Heck yes! This is gonna be fun! Gimmie the scoop on everyone there so I know what to look for." _

I hopped out of my car and slammed the door. It was already getting late but I had decided to drop by Kellerman's before I even checked into the hotel. There really didn't seem to be that many people around but I guessed there were all inside or asleep based on the time. I knew I need to look for some guy named Max so I headed in the direction of the big building in the middle of the place with all the lights on. Well, I started to anyway; I took about three steps before I heard a commotion coming from the opposite direction. A commotion that seemed much more exciting than talking to an old guy about work.

I followed a narrow dirt path through the woods and up a small hill. I didn't see any buildings or rooms around the path, but it was evident that the trail had been packed down by years of people trekking up and down it.

The sounds I had heard in the first place began to get louder and louder as I kept walking and I got more excited. I finally came out into a decent sized clearing containing a shack-like hall-thing. I could tell there were people inside and the sounds I had heard were the slow beats to the music that was playing in the background. I didn't want to just barge in on them, so I tiptoed around the side of the place to the back. Immediately I saw a very slim boy with dirty blonde hair messing around with a couple of melons. I approached him quietly, hoping that I wouldn't freak him out.

"Hey, how ya doin'?" I hollered as soon as I got closer to him. He jumped visibly and spun around. After introducing myself he told me that his name was Billy and asked if I could carry his watermelon. I couldn't believe I was already making friends!

I followed Billy into the shack-thing that Billy said was called 'The Hangout'. Billy started to introduce me to everyone as they came in for the party. None of them really seemed to fit the descriptions that Baby gave me so I didn't focus on them at all. I had to make sure I got in with everyone that she knew while she was here.

I kept following Billy around to see if he would start talking to someone that Baby was friends with. It seemed like it was becoming a lost cause, but just after Billy had gotten a beer I saw someone that I thought for sure I knew.

"Hey Soda!" I yelped. Baby told me he was super friendly and she hit it right on the nose, I talked to him more than I talked to anyone else that night, except maybe Billy of course.

The party was fun, but I had to check into my hotel soon if I wanted a place to sleep tonight. I made sure to tell Billy that I was leaving and then I headed out.

I stood in front of my travel bag, throwing out all my different clothes on the bed, trying to decide what would look best for talking to my future boss. I decided on an outfit that said 'hard working' yet still with a hint of 'summer vacation fun'. It also happened to be the only outfit I owned that didn't have any stains on it.  
I walked into the main house at nine o'clock on the spot and swiftly found my way to Max Kellerman's office. I swung the door open… and promptly hit my future boss square in the face with his office door.

"I'm so sorry sir!" I yelled over his cries of pain.

"It's fine!" He seethed, holding the bridge of his nose. He looked up at me and I could already see the question forming on his face through the most-likely broken nose.

"You're not a resident here are you?"

I shook my head no.

"Do you work for me then?"

I shook my head no again, but quickly added, "No, but I would really, really like to sir! That's why I'm here!"

"Well, I would hate to burst your bubble, but you're not off to a very good start getting on my good side."

"Right, right… I'm still very sorry about what I did sir! Very, very sorry!"

"It's alright," Mr. Kellerman said, rolling his eyes dramatically, "Besides, even if you hadn't hit me in the face with a door, you would still have to wait for an appointment with me. I was just leaving to go home for the weekend."

"Oh… Could you at lease take my resume with you? Please?" I slipped the piece of paper out of my pocket and un-folded it for him to see.

"Okay," He said, again not seeming all that thrilled, "We'll talk on Monday."

"Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou! I really appreciate this Mr. Kellerman! See you on Monday!" I waved goodbye to him as he walked out the front door, I had never seen a man his age walk that fast before.  
_Now that I have some free time, I need to start my spy work! _ I thought to myself enthusiastically. I saw one of the waiters coming out of the kitchen, waited until they were out the door, and then began following behind them. I was hoping to be led to the staff quarters so I could scope out Darry's room. Hopefully I wouldn't run into that Dorry girl on the way, I was already panicked about how Baby would react when she heard about him having a new girl in his life.

My hunch was right and the waiter guided me right into the block of land that held all of the staff's boarding rooms. It looked like a pretty big chunk of buildings to look through, and there was no way to tell who lived where, this could take a little longer than I was expecting. I started in on the first row trying to nonchalantly look through people's windows as I passed by to see if anyone was in them. The whole nonchalant thing wasn't quite working out for me though and I could see a girl out on her porch eyeing me suspiciously. I was considering just giving up, but that's right when I saw him. I'm sure that girl watching me thought I was even weirder when I dove behind the nearest trash can and then peeked over the top of it. I thought Darry was walking in my direction, but just as he was getting close he turned off and starting walking up a small dirt road that wrapped around a small hill like the one the hangout was on.

I rolled out from behind my trashcan and then crouched low to the ground so I would be less noticeable while following Darry. His room was more secluded than the others but it was still easy to find. He swung the screen door open and walked inside. I took my opportunity and ran towards the front of the room and leaped into a large cluster of bushes that was just outside of it. I turned my body around so I was facing the window that looked into the main part of his room and found a small hole in the bushes to look through. I pulled a small notepad and pencil out of my pocket and waited for something interesting to happen.

After about an hour I thought all I would be able to tell Baby was that her man likes to read with the radio on, but then I heard more footsteps coming up the path. It was the infamous Dorry, she walked through the front door like she owned the place and Darry jumped off the bed as soon as he saw her. He grabbed her up in a hug and spun her around before attacking her face with his own. I rolled my eyes and made gagging noises, I already hated this girl.

I kept watching, it seemed like they were just going to watch T.V. together but then they were kissing again… they were touching each other a lot… they got up and started walking towards the… oh no. This time I actually began gagging as I turned away as fast as I could, I swear I could hear the bed squeaking from all the way out here. I was definitely leaving this part out when I talked to Baby.

I needed to get out of there, and fast. I figured the two lovebirds were pretty preoccupied with each other so I didn't bother trying to sneak out, not worried that they would see me. I knew there was some kind of pond that the staff liked to swim in here so I went looking for it, it would be a good way to cool off after what I had just seen.

After swimming for awhile I went back to my hotel to dry off and get changed. I came back to Kellerman's partly trying to sleuth around and partly trying to find something to do so I wouldn't be bored out of my mind sitting in my hotel room all alone.

Immediately I saw Billy talking to a girl he had introduced me to last night, I ran up to them and joined the conversation, "Oh my gosh Anna, I have to tell you the funniest story! So I was at the pond when Billy showed up and – "

"NOT A SNORKEL." Billy declared before storming away.

I hoped he wasn't mad at me for what happened, so I followed him to see what was up. I found him talking to someone else again and popped up behind them.

"Johnny! So Billy and I were at the pond earlier – "

"NOT. A. SNORKEL." Billy glared at me before stomping off again.

This was seriously getting weird; I had to figure out what was going on with him. The next time I saw him he was talking to another one of his friends.

"Hey guys!" I started, "So Ponyboy, I was at the pond today when Billy showed up and – "

"OH MY GOD. IT WAS NOT A SNORKEL." Billy bellowed, pounding his fist into his open palm for emphasis. He stalked away from Ponyboy and me, shooting me a dirty look over his shoulder.

This time I saw him talking to Darry, my face flushed as I remembered the events of the morning. I was plenty embarrassed seeing that, so I thought that him hearing an embarrassing story might even it out a little bit.

"Oh, my God, Darry. I have to tell you the funniest story. So, today I went swimming at that pond and then Billy was there and he was completely – "  
"NO! Stop right there! It was not a snorkel, I get it! Never tell that to anyone! Just shut your mouth for once in your life and never tell anyone!" I yelled at her.

I stood there for a second, not willing to believe that Billy had just screamed at me like that. I was trying so hard to be nice to him all day and this is what I get? Fine, I can tell when I'm not wanted. I turned on my heel and walked away from the two of them. Maybe it was time I took a break and went back to my hotel; it would be good to gather my thoughts for my interview with Max tomorrow anyway.

I marched up the steps to the main clubhouse the next morning more ready for anything than I ever had been.

"What?" My jaw dropped in astonishment.

"I'm sorry Josephine, but I looked at your resume and I just wasn't very impressed. Besides, the summer is almost over and we'll be much less busy than before, which means we won't be needing any more staff at the moment."

"But- but-but! I came all the way out here, I have no more money! I need this job! Please!" I almost sobbed. I could not believe this was actually happening. I was so set on getting this job, I had never considered the possibility of not getting it.

"I'm very sorry Josephine, but we cannot take you at this time. Watch your step on the way out." He smiled at me like this wasn't the most devastating news I had ever received.

"Okay," I said, getting up from the chair. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes before I even reached to turn the doorknob. I flew out the door so he wouldn't see me crying and then plopped down right outside his office to let the waterworks begin.

"Hey, are you okay?" A voice said from above me.

"No." I grunted through a stuffy nose.

"Uh, what's wrong?" He asked uncomfortably. I looked up to see that it was Billy. He made his feelings for me pretty obvious the other day. I didn't think he would even speak to me again.

"Not that you would care, but I didn't get the job. So now I'm broke, homeless, and jobless." I broke down and the tears took over once again.

"We'll get you a job. Don't worry about it." Billy said, getting down on my level and caressing my shoulder gently.

"How? I can't stay around here. I'm out of money, and I don't have anywhere to stay."

Then Billy gave me the best offer I had ever heard in my entire life. I couldn't help but smile.


End file.
